most of the funding for public goes into administration, and whats left is for the “schools themselves” which is usually not much, and many schools remain underfunded for generations.
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Likely a similar reason that the us spends more per capita then just about anyone else on healthcare but get some of the worst results, pure greed and corruption.
And on Military and is getting dog walked by a failed state on a global stage. Number one military spend by every metric and they managed to lose the cold war 30 years after it “ended”.
Correct me if I am wrong but they have also lost every conflict they have been in where they had to be an occupying force. The largest military spending in the world and so far they have failed vs:
- Korea
- Vietnam
- Afghanistan
- Iran
- Iraq
- Niger
- 1/2 of Russia (the civil war in 1918)
- Indonesia
- Laos
- Cuba (well that one is more on the CIA)
- Cambodia
- Somalia
I am sure I am missing some, but its wild to go though the many many conflicts the us has been involved in.
School Districts are the final frontier of the wide spread corruption within the US system.
Think government contracting but way more corrupt because they don’t even need to really deliver anything to any standard because who fucking cares it is kids!
Big tech contracts for software that spies on kids
Prison companies supplying lunches
Needless athletic facilities at suburban schools.
Compensation for brain dead consultants.
Idiotic over priced books which are now mostly digital and demand license per student
This is where the money is going, it is not going to to teacher comp, it is not going for students to have good experience.
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These are often for extracurricular things like school trips.
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Schools are underfunded.
Wrt 1, teachers buy out of pocket and request classroom supplies such as tissues, chalk, pencils, erasers, notebook paper, art supplies, graph paper, compasses, protractors, safety scissors, glue, , hand sanitizer, etc
Cattywampus knows what’s up
- The schools that aren’t underfunded have millions of dollars in funds earmarked for sports usually.
i dont think its for k-12, but its mostly for universities, and colleges.
You would be incorrect. Many wealthier high schools put a ton of money into their sports facilities and equipment. Several HS in my state operate 10-thousand-plus-seating stadiums that look a lot like collegiate or semiprofessional facilities.
I think #1 is sports. Have you seen some of these stadiums?
Public primary and secondary schools do not typically have stadiums.
Some do indeed. The one near me has a pretty ridiculous one that makes me sad for the academics that it is leeching from.
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Not the only reason, but the cost of living is higher in the U.S. than most other locales on the planet.
That was my first reaction. I didn’t find the global average spending number reported by the OP, but according to this page, the 2019 average spending of $15,500 per student (38% higher than OECD average) did consider purchasing power.
Comparing things like this between countries is not straightforward. For example, Australia spends $14.1k per student while New Zealand spends $8.6k. That’s about 5.2% of GDP for both countries. From those numbers, would we conclude that Australia is overpaying, or New Zealand is underpaying, or that the two countries are comparable?
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/education-spending-by-country
Damn, Norway being only 4% of GDP is shocking, because they also pay their teachers well and have great education in general.
I think that goes to my point about simple comparisons being difficult. Norway has a high GDP relative to its size, so 4% might be more than enough for their situation. You also have to account for things like the labor cost of teachers, which varies by country.
Also the sort of things the schools spend money on. I don’t know from experience, but I think US schools pay for police officers to be at the school. That seems crazy to me, and expensive.
Not American, and I have no factual answer but I assume it’s because the people at the top just take all the money and leave the schools to fend for themselves. Typical corporate nonsense.
You’d think so, and while you’re right that the people at the top make way too much money, docking their entire salary at a large district like mine would only be enough to fund maaaaaaaaaaaaybe just under 5% of the schools in our district. And then you’d be left without leadership. If you cut everyone in my pay scale, you’d have enough to fund all the schools and then some, but you wouldn’t have teachers, custodians, tech workers, etc.
But here’s something interesting: during the pandemic, since athletics funds were already allocated and athletic events were cancelled, we were allowed to use those funds as we saw fit within the district. Suddenly, we were able to feed every student and staff member for free. Yee haw, welcome to Texan education…
Public schools are run by the local government, so “corporate nonsense” doesn’t really make sense. They aren’t corporations.
School board officials are frequently bribed to hire expensive contractors.
I’m sure that’s true. It’s also not at all related to my point that “schools are run by local governments and so are by definition not corporations”.
No my point is they offload too much to corporations and thus are beholden to the same concerns of those corporations by proxy.
Looking at the global median isn’t a good comparison, for starters. Many of those school systems aren’t comparable.
That said, there’s not likely to be one reason. I could guess at them, but I’d rather not since some will inevitably be wrong.
Criminally underfunded, plus capitalism as a value.
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That’s $15,000 not $15. The answer is schools are corrupt fronts for contractors who milk the district of every dollar. Construction, service, demolition, and reconstruction of buildings is expensive!
Or perhaps the dollars are being factored into to other workstreams in the system. We may be comparing apples to oranges here.
- Do other countries use student busing? If not, are they considering that impact into their public transportation?
- Do other counties have school meal programs?
- Do other countries factor out athletics into its own separate budget?
- what’s the average age of a public school?
- Is sexual education separated into health budgets?
- Physical Plants just cost more in America than most places, as we contract out both the design and construction and sometimes even the planning/permitting. Are these costs being factored in?
- Are the average class sizes per teacher similar?
- Are special needs costs factored in?
I’d first like to understand the diffs of what comprises that 30% more calculation, from there we can explore why the fundraisers are needed.
Textbooks are a racket and not just for college students.
Most of the money spent on education involves grifts for stuff like that, not for actual important shit like schools or teachers.
I don’t know the answer to your question, but I buy whatever the kids are selling. And I make like an idiot that knows nothing about it, whatever it is. (separately, am idiot, but I play it up)
I figure, maybe I can help a little? The money is probably negligible towards whatever the need is, but learning to sling popcorn or cookies, that might stoke some spark of pint-size entrepreneurship in them :j
Others may have different experiences, but AFAIK schools tend to be funded by the property taxes in their district. Combined with rampant, unchecked, failed desegreation, and you have some schools that are swimming in cash while everyone else begs to close that gap.
without digging into the numbers, i can pretty confidently say that schools are more than 30% more expensive than the global median in the US. staffing costs especially.
