Make them pay ... Rant

[polobunny]

Originally Posted by PrOLifIC_onE

Amen... Amen.... and Amen...

I second those Amen. :P
Seriously, same thing happening in Canada-land.

[screwballl]

Originally Posted by NoctisReitop

I almost think that sometimes jail is incentive. A homeless man that cannot afford a place to sleep, no food, no anything would actually do better in several ways to be in jail >.< . That's kind of sad.

I have met several people that do exactly this. They purposely get caught shoplifting so they spend a week or two in jail. there was a case here a few weeks ago where a homeless guy purposely robbed a bank wanting to get caught because he knew he would be locked up for several years. He was quoted saying something like (but not exactly) "now I have a warm bed, 3 meals a day and the minor inconvenience of handcuffs".
Sad but true

[PTRMAN]

What I don't understand is with all the tax money that goes into the education system, why are teachers reduced to buying their own supplies? Where does all the tax money go? Administrators?

[fstroupe]

A significant amount of money is spent in running the US Department of Education, a totally unnecessary layer of bureaucracy in the education system. And each state has its own education department, who gets its operational budget from educational funds. Each county and/or city also has its own administration offices, which vary in size. I would imagine that the budget of the combined educational admin offices of the greater NYC area, LA area, etc, each run in the millions of dollars per year. And we have yet to teach the first child.

Administrators, teachers, maintenance workers, cafeteria workers, security (if applicable), bus drivers, etc have to be paid, along with their benefits. (different states do that different ways) In some states, retired educators' pensions also are drawn from the overall education budget. All of these educational funds are drawn at the state level.

It costs a lot of money to run a school. Electricity, water, natural gas/heating oil (if applicable), building and grounds maintenance, etc for starters. Schools with older buildings require a lot more maintenance, and eventually replacement. Buses, fuel, and maintenance eat up more cash.

Regardless of what is claimed, school athletics seldom pay for themselves, so we have expenses for sports programs, along with maintenance and utilities of sports arenas. Coaches are often also teachers, but not everywhere. If the school has a band program, more expenses there.

And across that realm are all kinds of opportunities for waste. And I'm not really talking about intentional waste, but incidental. One unnecessary secretary in that system eats up $30-$50 grand, plus benefits, an unnecessary administrator more than that. Even in my small state, between the state office and the 157 school districts (with from one to ten or more schools per district) how many unnecessary people, buildings, buses, etc, are wasting our educational tax dollars.

A problem we have in our county is unnecessary schools. There are four county schools, and there should be two. Each of those two schools would receive twice the current money, and have not much more than the current expenses. Currently none of the four schools can afford football or band programs, but easily would with two. But, no one wants to give up "their" school for consolidation.

The list goes on...probably the lowest item on that list is actual classroom supplies. Most teachers find it easier to spend their own money on them. It would be different if they were well paid, but here they make between $30 and $40 grand, depending on how long they have been teaching.

[PTRMAN]

And THAT is why government is often the largest (or one of the largest) employers in a State. In my state (NJ) every little podunk town has its own setup, complete with administration and staff (as you noted in your post).

The NEA is set against vouchers, but I believe competition could only help the whole education apparatus in our country.