Every generation the inflation adjusted per capita money going to education doubles or more. Perhaps avalanche isn't the perfect terms (its not a sudden and huge but over quick, its strong growth over time), but its a lot of money, and we don't seem to have gotten a lot of results for that money.
So what? Because of circumstances peculiar to my situation, my living expenses amount to $4K per month. My monthly salary is $1300 which is not nearly enough. If you double that salary, that's better but still not enough.
So please don't tell me how the amount of money spent on schools has doubled or tripled or quadrupled over the past 50 years. Those numbers are meaningless without knowing the financial needs for a district and whether the district has ever gotten enough money to maintain and operate its schools.
What do you think, Tim, that teachers are throwing money in the street so your tax bills will go up? Do you think its a conspiracy?
No, and No. But it does seem to be a sign that the system doesn't work that well, and that continuing to just throw more and more money at it isn't the solution.
I am increasingly convinced that the problems with American schools has more to do with the problems of American society than it has to do with education or the teachers or the management of the school budget.
There are some significant problems with our culture that surface in schools and create serious disruptions. Tonite on Anderson Cooper, they were showing a video clip that appeared on My Space where three girls beat up a fourth girl. They were 13-14 and from a middle class town on Long Island. Such events are not unusual......such videos have been appearing on My Space with some regularity over the past few years.
In Texas, there were five cheerleaders who were making the life of some of the other girls at the school a living hell...threatening to hurt them, stealing from them; harassing them. In Chicago, most boys of color start dropping out of school by the time they are in the 8th grade with few graduating high school. This kind of widespread dysfunction and anti social behavior is fairly widespread.
Our society is a violent one that seems to be in constant upheaval and that is having its impact on kids. Too many kids have little discipline; they get very little supervision from their parents; they are hungry for attention; ADD and ADHD are on the rise; in some cities, asthma and diabetes are reaching epidemic proportions among teens; autism too is increasing. In a classroom of 30 kids, a teacher must deal with so many problems that the teaching portion of his or her job becomes very difficult. And if you think these problems are confined to poorer schools, think again. They exist in every school in this country, rich or poor. Some doctors are saying that for the first time in American history the current generation of kids may not live as long as their parents because they are living such unhealthy lifestyles now as kids.
Even if a real solution does require more money, it should be as part of some sort of major change, not just more and more money without changes, or with only minor and/or cosmetic changes.
As I said to Steve Harris, schools are not rockets and teaching kids is not rocket science. There are not a lot of moving parts to fix. What needs fixing are the kids. My graduate program has taught us a pedagogy that encourages kids to learn; encourages them to participate; allows them to develop their own education. That's about as good as it gets. If a kid can not learn, or does not want to learn, or is too screwed up to learn, its unlikely a teacher with 30 other kids in the classroom will be able to change that student. That's the reality.
Read my lips, Tim. They are not managing. Every school I have been to except those in wealthy school districts [which are in the minority] are short of just about every thing.
Fine they are not management, but they are still in many cases getting a ton of money (and that isn't limited to rich suburban school districts). If they don't have enough it is (for the most part) exactly because they aren't managing (are mismanaging the money) or perhaps because they are over managing (too many school or more likely district officials taking up money that should be spent in ways more directly related to educating students).
Tim, it doesn't matter what I tell you. You are convinced that schools are blowing the money. And its people like you who continue to cut school budgets because you see waste when there is none, or you place so many conditions that you make it very difficult to teach.
The population of the country is approaching 300 million nearly double when the boomers went to school. Naturally there are more kids.
Class sizes are smaller than when the boomers went to school, not larger.
And real per student spending keeps going up. The fact that there are more students isn't a good reason for any long term growth in students per class. (Short term it takes time to add schools and classrooms no matter how many resources are devoted to the effort). Currently its possible that we are going through an increase in class size. I couldn't find data one way or the other. But over decades our class sizes have been decreasing, and American class sizes are not large compared to other countries. Barely over the weighted average at age 9, and below the weighted average at 13.
nationmaster.com
nationmaster.com;
I've been to three high schools and 4 middle schools and I have never seen a class with less than 25 students. Now these were all city schools and it may be different in the suburbs. I will ask the people in my cohort who are doing their student teaching at suburban schools if the classroom sizes are smaller.....although I doubt that there is a classroom in any public school with only 18 kids. The website above probably is factoring in private schools into their numbers. |
