Taiwan for example has a highly successful public school system that is fueled by parents who beyond the overcrowded classrooms in public school pay for tutoring all through their children's lives. It's working like a charm. Here it would mess with too many entertainment budgets. Priorities.
I agree, but many liberals are against holding the public accountable. Look around you and you will find this being a huge problem on both sides. And personally I believe its a good thing. Last thing we need is the federal government forcing us how to parent.
I agree with this as well. The fact that a teacher must teach classes of 40 kids, when those 40 kids bring in roughly 400k per year of budget to the school. It's a complete travesty that they are paid so little
In California: Figure K12-04 Where Schools Spend Their Money: Classroom Instruction 62.4% Transportation 2.7% Other General Fund 2.7% Pupil Services 5.2% General Administration 5.3% Instructional Support 11.7% Maintenance and Operations 10.0% Classroom Instruction includes general education, special education, teacher compensation, and special projects. General Administration includes superintendent and board, district and other administration and centralized electronic data processing. Instructional Support includes research, curriculum development and staff development that benefits and supports student instruction. Maintenance and Operations includes utilities, janitorial and groundskeeping staff, and routine repair and maintenance. Pupil Services includes counselors, school psychologists, nurses, child welfare, and attendance staff. Other General Fund includes spending for ancillary services, contracts with other agencies, and transfers to and from other district funds. 1 Based on 2011-12 expenditure data reported by schools for their general purpose funding.
You get what you pay for in education. You can see kids in the classroom that love being there. Given that, a teacher has something to work with. Unfortunately, knowledge isn't competing with video games or cell phones in many cases. I've taught in Taiwan, Hawaii and Oregon and there's no comparison in the culture of education. Hawaii was the worst.
Disability checks and medical costs for people who've eaten themselves into diabetic sickness. etc. The amount of middle aged adults collecting money not to work is embarassing
As much as I love basketball, sports are also where money is going and way too many are athletic scholarships as opposed to academic scholarships.
I don't see it as a bad thing. Sports help the school more than hurt. Plus, sports are a privilege for those participating. Sports help kids focus on their studies more while the school profits off their contributions. It's a win-win.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! I don't like USC either. I actually don't pay attention to college sports that much.
Mags! There is something wrong with your example. Where is the retirement plan or PERs line accounted. Teachers retire with a better defined pension plan than almost any other occupation. It has been going on now for some 50 years. Where is that giant payout accounting done? Is that commingled in with classroom instruction? The cost to the schools districts is going up dramatically every year. The snowball is has probably reached uncontrollable velocity. http://stand.org/oregon/blog/2013/02/28/pers-101-what-pers-and-why-do-parents-need-know-about-it
Despite all the intelligence shown in this thread so far, it won't change a hill of beans till this country reallocates its priorities. The billions going to education should be diverted into tax breaks for core industries like message boards. We can't keep putting this nation's creativity into message boards without new incentives for our sacred partnership to ensure future value-added innovation on the horizon.