For reference, because this statistic boggles my mind, with an average class size of 30, the average expenditure per classroom is roughly three hundred thousand dollars.
What is wrong with this country's public education system when we can spend three hundred thousand dollars on a single classroom and children can't learn fractions?
I disagree that the problem is teacher salaries. I would posit that teacher salaries are good and fair in my state (and low in others), but that there are many teachers out there undeserving of their jobs let alone their salaries.
The problem is bloated administration, vast overspending on technology, underqualified teachers that cannot be fired, and the impossibility of supplanting entrenched, malignant teachers unions.
What can be done about these problems? Well, not much really. The upper middle class is taking their school taxes on the chin and putting their children through private schools, the lower middle class doesn't have the weapons or resources to fight the public school bureaucracy, and the teachers union has a vested interest in doing what is best for teachers, not what is best for students.
I am very much in favor of unionization, however time and time again we've been shown that school boards cannot be trusted to broker a good deal when they're paying for things with someone else's money, and unions aren't going to do them any favors.
What is wrong with this country's public education system when we can spend three hundred thousand dollars on a single classroom and children can't learn fractions?
I disagree that the problem is teacher salaries. I would posit that teacher salaries are good and fair in my state (and low in others), but that there are many teachers out there undeserving of their jobs let alone their salaries.
The problem is bloated administration, vast overspending on technology, underqualified teachers that cannot be fired, and the impossibility of supplanting entrenched, malignant teachers unions.
What can be done about these problems? Well, not much really. The upper middle class is taking their school taxes on the chin and putting their children through private schools, the lower middle class doesn't have the weapons or resources to fight the public school bureaucracy, and the teachers union has a vested interest in doing what is best for teachers, not what is best for students.
I am very much in favor of unionization, however time and time again we've been shown that school boards cannot be trusted to broker a good deal when they're paying for things with someone else's money, and unions aren't going to do them any favors.