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I ask this question because there are some who think that the money that we are spending on educating our students is too much or too expensive. These are some of the same people who ask the same question in regard to the sky rocketing cost of medical insurance. Yet, they argue that we can't put a cost on medical care, but we can on educating our future generation.
Can we sacrifice our children's future when they won't be able to compete with Japan, China or European students in this global economy if we continue to reduce funding to schools simply because some think that it's too expensive. What will be the real cost as a result of increased class sizes, with a predominately aging teaching staff of mainly baby boomers and older generation x'ers who will be ready to retire in the next 5-15 years, which will result in a massive teacher shortage once our economy stablizes?
Yes, and we have. Realistically, there is a top to what we're willing to pay for anything. As to whether or not what we're paying for education is enough, that really depends on where you are and how the money is spent. Could we do more with more money? Sure but the public has spoken on that one and we're not getting it.
I don't think that anyone is putting a limit on how much it costs to educate our children. They are opposed to the amount of money that we spend on administrative costs for our school districts, though.
My daughter will go to private school in the fall, and they spend far less per student than the local school district spends. Why? Because the private school tuition doesn't also have to support a 2-million-square foot administrative facility with hundreds of employees that are not directly involved in educating students. The private school she'll attend spends about $8000 per student for a better program than the $10,000 a year the public schools spend.
If we spent 90% of our tax dollars actually educating our students instead of paying for administrative staff and consultants our schools would be in great shape.
You can start by getting rid of students who dont speak english and bring the rest of their class mates down.
I am looking forward to all kinds of shortages in all career fields after the economy stabalizes and the old timers retire, that means big bucks for people with experience and education. I am hoping that in 5-10 years engineers are going to have companies by the balls, I would not hesitate to ask for over 200k a year.
Stuff being expensive is relative, if everyone with a solid resume has good paying respectable jobs people dont mind paying for quality but when people are paid boarder line chineese slave wages well then pretty soon everything is to expensive.
I don't think that anyone is putting a limit on how much it costs to educate our children. They are opposed to the amount of money that we spend on administrative costs for our school districts, though.
My daughter will go to private school in the fall, and they spend far less per student than the local school district spends. Why? Because the private school tuition doesn't also have to support a 2-million-square foot administrative facility with hundreds of employees that are not directly involved in educating students. The private school she'll attend spends about $8000 per student for a better program than the $10,000 a year the public schools spend.
If we spent 90% of our tax dollars actually educating our students instead of paying for administrative staff and consultants our schools would be in great shape.
2 million square foot administration building? Please tell me where this multi-acre facility exists.
One of the problems is the de-professionalization of teachers. A lot of people believe that experience in a school setting as a student or parent is all you need to "understand" how to teach children. As well, with the increasing standardization of curricula, some districts have reams of scripted lesson plans that teachers are expected to follow. When such a system is followed to the letter, the teacher is no more than a glorified proctor reading from a recipe book. With growing cynicism amongst taxpayers, it's then logical that folks might think, "Why pay more for a glorified proctor to read from a pre-written lesson plan?"
As an NCLB "highly qualified" teacher, who invested a lot of money to retrain as a teacher, I'm all for increased pay, loan forgiveness, and low-cost continuing education programs. As well, I'd love to plan engaging lessons that are appropriate for my students without having to worry whether or not I can afford the materials such a lesson would involve.
Interesting (if unrealistic) thought experiment: What if, for just one year, the federal government invested in education the amount of money we spend on defense in one year?
I ask this question because there are some who think that the money that we are spending on educating our students is too much or too expensive. These are some of the same people who ask the same question in regard to the sky rocketing cost of medical insurance. Yet, they argue that we can't put a cost on medical care, but we can on educating our future generation.
Can we sacrifice our children's future when they won't be able to compete with Japan, China or European students in this global economy if we continue to reduce funding to schools simply because some think that it's too expensive. What will be the real cost as a result of increased class sizes, with a predominately aging teaching staff of mainly baby boomers and older generation x'ers who will be ready to retire in the next 5-15 years, which will result in a massive teacher shortage once our economy stablizes?
High school spending per pupil in the United States is $7,764 per student which is only surpassed by Austria ($8,163) and Switzerland ($9,348) with the rest of the world spending less.
Japan spends $5,890.00 per student whiel Great Britain spends $5,230.00 per student. The weighted world average is $5,463.67 per student.
Yet we constantly view how we are not spending enough.
I wonder where the money goes.
$7,764 per student with 25 in a classroom represents $194,100 per classroom per year.
With a teacher earning $60,000 per year plus $12,000 for fringe benefits there is still $122,100 left over. (I do not believe the average US teacher earns $60,000 per year but let's use that figure anyway).
Where does the remaining $122,100 go?
The average classroom measures 24'x28' and if you double this for corridors etc the overage classroom covers 1,350 sq. ft.. The cost of all utilities for an average 1,350 sq. ft. house does not exceed $300/month so take $3,600 off the $122,100 and we're left with $118,500.
The cost of building a new school is around $70 per sq ft ($70x1350=$94,000) which at 30 years at 5% represents $7,444 per year plant cost with interest which leaves $111,056 left over after we pay the teacher and cover the cost of a brand new school every 20 years.
Books... $400 per student per year? That leaves $101,056. Double that for pencils, papers and supplies ($10,000 can buy a lot of paper and pencils at staples) and you still have $91,056 left over.
A school with 16 classrooms would take a principal, four assistants & secretaries, two janitors and two others for the heck of it.
Pay the principal $150,000, each secretary $50,000, each janitor $45,000 and two (lets make that four) helpers $40,000 and we have an additional $519,000 which still eaves $939,896 and with pay for janitors and secretaries I think I was very generous in my estimates.
I doubt any single classroom has a budget of $20,000 per year for books and supplies.
The two big things I missed was insurance and busing. I can't believe 6 buses and insurance would run a million per year. I just don't buy that.
So where is the money going?
Troubled kids? Kick em to the curb because we do not have the money for the BS anymore.
But I know what the problem is, like government school administration is top heavy in its bureaucracy.
Everything is a value judgment in world of finite resources...
Parents need to judge if they can afford kids before having them
Healthcare has a finite value when we all will die of heart dz or cancer at some age anyway; prevention is cheap and self-directed; no economically rational reason US spends ~twice per capita on hc as Germany yet has similar outcomes
Many top grads of leading engineering schools like Stanford or Berkeley attended mediocre public schools in suburban US or even weaker public schools in rural India; acquiring strong math/analytic/business English skills is clearly very cheap for any ambitious kid w/semi-competent parents
Apple spends far less on R&D (as a % of revs) than BigTech rivals like Microsoft or Google...or even vs low-tech, puny Dell...yet stock market value and profits show R&D spending doesn't always correlate with either innovation or wealth creation
MIT is a good engineering school that graduates twice the number of kids/yr as Stanford Engineering and costs about same....but Bos has nearly no tech cos. of value, despite proximity to MIT and Harvard...and very few notable MIT alums exist in SiliconValley
Money alone has never proven an ability to offer a better education or buy IQ or create valuable new cos. or innovative technologies
Suspect most excessive spending on education is wasted on overpaid admins, union/tenure-protected inept teachers/profs, "diversity" or lib arts or sports/music stuff, not core math/stats/computers/economics/business English training to provide kids with skills useful to future employers and their future earnings power
High school spending per pupil in the United States is $7,764 per student which is only surpassed by Austria ($8,163) and Switzerland ($9,348) with the rest of the world spending less.
Japan spends $5,890.00 per student whiel Great Britain spends $5,230.00 per student. The weighted world average is $5,463.67 per student.
Yet we constantly view how we are not spending enough.
I wonder where the money goes.
$7,764 per student with 25 in a classroom represents $194,100 per classroom per year.
With a teacher earning $60,000 per year plus $12,000 for fringe benefits there is still $122,100 left over. (I do not believe the average US teacher earns $60,000 per year but let's use that figure anyway).
Where does the remaining $122,100 go?
The average classroom measures 24'x28' and if you double this for corridors etc the overage classroom covers 1,350 sq. ft.. The cost of all utilities for an average 1,350 sq. ft. house does not exceed $300/month so take $3,600 off the $122,100 and we're left with $118,500.
The cost of building a new school is around $70 per sq ft ($70x1350=$94,000) which at 30 years at 5% represents $7,444 per year plant cost with interest which leaves $111,056 left over after we pay the teacher and cover the cost of a brand new school every 20 years.
Books... $400 per student per year? That leaves $101,056. Double that for pencils, papers and supplies ($10,000 can buy a lot of paper and pencils at staples) and you still have $91,056 left over.
A school with 16 classrooms would take a principal, four assistants & secretaries, two janitors and two others for the heck of it.
Pay the principal $150,000, each secretary $50,000, each janitor $45,000 and two (lets make that four) helpers $40,000 and we have an additional $519,000 which still eaves $939,896 and with pay for janitors and secretaries I think I was very generous in my estimates.
I doubt any single classroom has a budget of $20,000 per year for books and supplies.
The two big things I missed was insurance and busing. I can't believe 6 buses and insurance would run a million per year. I just don't buy that.
So where is the money going?
Troubled kids? Kick em to the curb because we do not have the money for the BS anymore.
But I know what the problem is, like government school administration is top heavy in its bureaucracy.
I agree with you 100%. The sad reality of the matter is that we do have too many administrators who need assistants and coordinators to help them run their department, and when you really think about it, all that they are doing is just delegating work on someone else----mainly the teachers who they are hired to support and facilitate.
I ask this question because there are some who think that the money that we are spending on educating our students is too much or too expensive. These are some of the same people who ask the same question in regard to the sky rocketing cost of medical insurance. Yet, they argue that we can't put a cost on medical care, but we can on educating our future generation.
Can we sacrifice our children's future when they won't be able to compete with Japan, China or European students in this global economy if we continue to reduce funding to schools simply because some think that it's too expensive. What will be the real cost as a result of increased class sizes, with a predominately aging teaching staff of mainly baby boomers and older generation x'ers who will be ready to retire in the next 5-15 years, which will result in a massive teacher shortage once our economy stablizes?
Everything has a price on it. Needs are infinite and resources are limited. The idea that people who question education costs don't care about the kids is a red herring. Not every dollar spent brings the same benefit, and we need to scrutinize our spending in order to get the best value for every dollar spent. The idea that education spending shouldn't be questioned because it's 'for the kids' is teacher's union propaganda.
We've steeply increased spending per student, even accounting for inflation, without any real results. Why should we sign a blank check?
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