Education, politics, and anything else that catches my attention.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Per-Pupil Spending
Anyone want to tackle this graph, which shows the US spending more on public schools than all those high-cost, socialist European countries?
3 comments:
PeggyU
said...
Not enough information to go on. What constitutes "education spending"? Are free lunches and breakfasts included in that total? What extras do US schools provide that other schools do not? How do other schools deal with mentally challenged students, disciplinary problems, and non-native language speakers - all of whom US schools accomodate and which add to the cost?
The reason European nations spend less is that they don't include many of the extracurricular activities that are viewed as normal for the average suburban high school. When I have had exchanged students in my classes, they are amazed at the offerings of PE, sports, athletics, cheerleading, drill team, band, orchestra and choir that are common in most schools but which are totally outside activities in many European schools. In addition our schools must provide a plethora of special programs based on socio-economic patterns mandated by the Federal government. Instead of social programs existing as stand alone models here, we manifest them through the virtually captive audience of the public school setting. We also offer very costly special education programs which go far and beyond simple educational differences into the realm of educating or at least providing life skills for the seriously mentally disabled. In my school there are four teachers who provide services for less than forty students, some of whom do not speak, read, write or communicate and some which are on constant IV's and in wheel chairs. This is not educations per se, but it's delivery of services based on feelgood political policies.
3 comments:
Not enough information to go on. What constitutes "education spending"? Are free lunches and breakfasts included in that total? What extras do US schools provide that other schools do not? How do other schools deal with mentally challenged students, disciplinary problems, and non-native language speakers - all of whom US schools accomodate and which add to the cost?
The reason European nations spend less is that they don't include many of the extracurricular activities that are viewed as normal for the average suburban high school. When I have had exchanged students in my classes, they are amazed at the offerings of PE, sports, athletics, cheerleading, drill team, band, orchestra and choir that are common in most schools but which are totally outside activities in many European schools. In addition our schools must provide a plethora of special programs based on socio-economic patterns mandated by the Federal government. Instead of social programs existing as stand alone models here, we manifest them through the virtually captive audience of the public school setting. We also offer very costly special education programs which go far and beyond simple educational differences into the realm of educating or at least providing life skills for the seriously mentally disabled. In my school there are four teachers who provide services for less than forty students, some of whom do not speak, read, write or communicate and some which are on constant IV's and in wheel chairs. This is not educations per se, but it's delivery of services based on feelgood political policies.
The seven cast members of "Jersey Shore" earned more money than all of the teachers and paras in our school combined.
The whole country's out of whack, Darren.
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