Well, this reminds me that I went to school in a cave.
Fine except for having to keep the smoke out of my eyes.
And those painting expeditions to the deep caverns were real fun.
It’s amazing how many people just automatically say, “Yes, they need more money.” It’s too bad that the press has been in bed with teachers unions for so long.
Just another arrow in the libertarian’s quiver that highly centralized government is corrupt.
Why Jim thinks health care will be different is beyond me. No, it isn’t. He’s in on the game.
Hey, man, I was told there would be no math…
(Also, I have a new pet peeve: people who say “math” when they actually mean “third-grade arithmetic”.)
On a positive note, Bush’s No Child Left Behind didn’t make things worse.
This is the remarkable failure of US education – poor outcome for the money spent. Another statistic which I can’t find at the moment shows the US with a much higher per capita spending than most of the developed world, again without a notably better educational system.
We know the facts. The fact is this chart simply proves they are GOOD at what they do and we lack the backbone to stop them. They need to be ended, but it will not happen until people do more than they are. Starting with,, when somebody says end them, stop making excuses why we shouldn’t.
Reminds me of a time back in the 80s when my father tried to get historical budget information from Santa Clara County. First, the nice lady on the phone tried to convince him it was “classified”. Uh-huh. When he finally got it, lo and behold, the (inflation-adjusted, natch) rate of budget increase had been roughly steady for the past 30-some years, way beyond the rate of population growth, and independent of the quality of the local economy at any time. It’s magic money, folks!
lets see, costs have went up 190% in 42 years, about 4.5% per year .. about inflation levels on average, so test scores should rise at the same rate as inflation?
Look again at the graphic and find the words, “adjusted for inflation.”
But over in the climate science school, them learn to adjust it, more.
There’s a couple of things that chart doesn’t allow for, one is the per head growth in GDP, teachers should perhaps expect there pay to increase above the rate of inflation as is the case with everyone else over the last 40 years.
The other is that in industries in which productivity per person can’t really grow as a result of advancing technology, costs will grow faster than the growth in per head GDP across the whole economy (a waiter can only wait on so many people, don’t expect waiters (or teachers) to double per head productivity just because auto factories, by using robots, can).
“teachers should perhaps expect there (sic) pay to increase above the rate of inflation as is the case with everyone else over the last 40 years.”
Except when one looks at the detailed budget numbers, they find that salaries are rarely the largest cost-driver of school budgets. Administration costs, infrastructure, and “technology” spending has significantly out-paced teacher pay over the years.
See also: grandiose “Educational and Leadership Services” buildings being constructed by school boards so that their superintendents and 50 other “administrators” can each have their own corner or other office with windows, while the schools themselves often languish with leaky roofs and sub-standard lighting and HVAC systems. The solution is nearly always a new bond referendum and increased property taxes, with at least 5% of that bond being used for “administering” the money.
“Except when one looks at the detailed budget numbers, they find that salaries are rarely the largest cost-driver of school budgets.” The salaries aren’t rising. The number of teachers per student (the teacher/student ratio) is rising. A kid is more likely to have (in addition to the classroom teacher) more substitutes, more aides, more “developmental” teachers, more “Master Teachers” (carried on the HR documentation as “teachers” but assigned to teach teaching to the classroom teachers rather than teach the students) as well as more coaches, athletic trainers, tutors and and other employees who are chosen for talents and tasks other than teaching and who are evaluated for success at their winning records in these areas, but are carried on the books as “teachers”. The school district itself is rated by state and federal measured of teacher-to-student ratio and the higher, the better — as far as getting more funding goes.
The number of administrators, grant writers, cooks, secretaries, vice principals, police officers, and other non-teaching persons on payroll is also rising. A decade ago Texas set a goal of having at least 65% of the staff be teaching — after all the effort to get there the result has been to LOWER the teacher-to-total-employee ratio to about 50/50. But again the district is praised and rewarded for a high “employee to student” ratio, so they think they’re doing fine.
Having said that, I think it is time to look for ways to improve education while increasing class size which I think can be done through the use of tutorial videos and interactive computer programs.
khanacademy.org
Except when one looks at the detailed budget numbers,. . .
The number of administrators, grant writers, cooks, secretaries, vice principals, police officers, and other non-teaching persons on payroll is also rising. links please
There was a time – prior to 1970 – when the smartest women became teachers. Now the smartest women are bank executives, doctors, CEOs, engineers, lawyers, politicians, and so on. They’re not becoming teachers. The ones who are becoming teachers are those who just barely got into college, and when they do start teaching they don’t necessarily understand the subject themselves.
How to fix this? Eliminating public employee unions across the board would be a good start, and not just in education but across all government departments.
Secondly, make teaching a postgraduate degree. Get a degree first, then learn how to teach the subject you have already mastered. Get a degree in math before learning how to teach math, then only people who really understand math can be math teachers at the grade school level.
Do those two things and teaching will actually be a profession again.
Well, this reminds me that I went to school in a cave.
Fine except for having to keep the smoke out of my eyes.
And those painting expeditions to the deep caverns were real fun.
It’s amazing how many people just automatically say, “Yes, they need more money.” It’s too bad that the press has been in bed with teachers unions for so long.
Just another arrow in the libertarian’s quiver that highly centralized government is corrupt.
Why Jim thinks health care will be different is beyond me. No, it isn’t. He’s in on the game.
Hey, man, I was told there would be no math…
(Also, I have a new pet peeve: people who say “math” when they actually mean “third-grade arithmetic”.)
On a positive note, Bush’s No Child Left Behind didn’t make things worse.
This is the remarkable failure of US education – poor outcome for the money spent. Another statistic which I can’t find at the moment shows the US with a much higher per capita spending than most of the developed world, again without a notably better educational system.
We know the facts. The fact is this chart simply proves they are GOOD at what they do and we lack the backbone to stop them. They need to be ended, but it will not happen until people do more than they are. Starting with,, when somebody says end them, stop making excuses why we shouldn’t.
Reminds me of a time back in the 80s when my father tried to get historical budget information from Santa Clara County. First, the nice lady on the phone tried to convince him it was “classified”. Uh-huh. When he finally got it, lo and behold, the (inflation-adjusted, natch) rate of budget increase had been roughly steady for the past 30-some years, way beyond the rate of population growth, and independent of the quality of the local economy at any time. It’s magic money, folks!
lets see, costs have went up 190% in 42 years, about 4.5% per year .. about inflation levels on average, so test scores should rise at the same rate as inflation?
Look again at the graphic and find the words, “adjusted for inflation.”
But over in the climate science school, them learn to adjust it, more.
There’s a couple of things that chart doesn’t allow for, one is the per head growth in GDP, teachers should perhaps expect there pay to increase above the rate of inflation as is the case with everyone else over the last 40 years.
The other is that in industries in which productivity per person can’t really grow as a result of advancing technology, costs will grow faster than the growth in per head GDP across the whole economy (a waiter can only wait on so many people, don’t expect waiters (or teachers) to double per head productivity just because auto factories, by using robots, can).
“teachers should perhaps expect there (sic) pay to increase above the rate of inflation as is the case with everyone else over the last 40 years.”
Except when one looks at the detailed budget numbers, they find that salaries are rarely the largest cost-driver of school budgets. Administration costs, infrastructure, and “technology” spending has significantly out-paced teacher pay over the years.
See also: grandiose “Educational and Leadership Services” buildings being constructed by school boards so that their superintendents and 50 other “administrators” can each have their own corner or other office with windows, while the schools themselves often languish with leaky roofs and sub-standard lighting and HVAC systems. The solution is nearly always a new bond referendum and increased property taxes, with at least 5% of that bond being used for “administering” the money.
“Except when one looks at the detailed budget numbers, they find that salaries are rarely the largest cost-driver of school budgets.” The salaries aren’t rising. The number of teachers per student (the teacher/student ratio) is rising. A kid is more likely to have (in addition to the classroom teacher) more substitutes, more aides, more “developmental” teachers, more “Master Teachers” (carried on the HR documentation as “teachers” but assigned to teach teaching to the classroom teachers rather than teach the students) as well as more coaches, athletic trainers, tutors and and other employees who are chosen for talents and tasks other than teaching and who are evaluated for success at their winning records in these areas, but are carried on the books as “teachers”. The school district itself is rated by state and federal measured of teacher-to-student ratio and the higher, the better — as far as getting more funding goes.
The number of administrators, grant writers, cooks, secretaries, vice principals, police officers, and other non-teaching persons on payroll is also rising. A decade ago Texas set a goal of having at least 65% of the staff be teaching — after all the effort to get there the result has been to LOWER the teacher-to-total-employee ratio to about 50/50. But again the district is praised and rewarded for a high “employee to student” ratio, so they think they’re doing fine.
Having said that, I think it is time to look for ways to improve education while increasing class size which I think can be done through the use of tutorial videos and interactive computer programs.
khanacademy.org
Except when one looks at the detailed budget numbers,. . .
The number of administrators, grant writers, cooks, secretaries, vice principals, police officers, and other non-teaching persons on payroll is also rising. links please
There was a time – prior to 1970 – when the smartest women became teachers. Now the smartest women are bank executives, doctors, CEOs, engineers, lawyers, politicians, and so on. They’re not becoming teachers. The ones who are becoming teachers are those who just barely got into college, and when they do start teaching they don’t necessarily understand the subject themselves.
How to fix this? Eliminating public employee unions across the board would be a good start, and not just in education but across all government departments.
Secondly, make teaching a postgraduate degree. Get a degree first, then learn how to teach the subject you have already mastered. Get a degree in math before learning how to teach math, then only people who really understand math can be math teachers at the grade school level.
Do those two things and teaching will actually be a profession again.