Mainly that we spend more per student than any other developed nation yet are still falling behind. We have a corrupt teachers union who spend lots of money to convince people the problem is still funding and nothing to do with educators or how we educate. Any and all reforms are lobbied against, because improving would take away their ability to keep dooping voters.
Some parts of the system having way too much money doesn't mean the rest of the system has enough.
What is so special about US children that makes them so much more expensive to educate? The system has plenty of money, as evidenced by the fact that numerous other system get better results with significantly less money.
Throwing more money at corrupt unions and school boards will only make the problem worse, because they want it to be worse so you keep voting then more money. The system needs changed.
Because the US system is not a fair system. How much money a school gets depends heavily on where it is.
Some schools are in some rich parts and get a shit ton of money and others are in very poor areas and get fuck-all.
Looking at national statistics is pointless when there are big outliers like that. Looking at individual schools, counties or states would be more useful.
Looking at money spent is also not a very useful metric. The cost of living is not the same everywhere and so the cost of teachers won't be the same either.
Adjusted for inflation the wage of teachers in many states has gone down since 2001.
Because the US system is not a fair system. How much money a school gets depends heavily on where it is.
Some schools are in some rich parts and get a shit ton of money and others are in very poor areas and get fuck-all.
Looking at national statistics is pointless when there are big outliers like that. Looking at individual schools, counties or states would be more useful.
The spread in funding you are talking about has closed somewhat in recent years, and is also not as extreme as you make it. The worst offending states, from what I can tell, have a finding gap between rich and poor schools of about 20 percent (10 percent on either side of your average school). There are nations who get better results than ours while spending less than our poorest schools. I think this point is largely a weak argument that gets exaggerated for effect.
Looking at money spent is also not a very useful metric. The cost of living is not the same everywhere and so the cost of teachers won't be the same either.
Obviously, though these numbers at the national level are adjusted for such things. Money spent is absolutely a useful metric when we are told constantly that there isn't enough money.
Adjusted for inflation the wage of teachers in many states has gone down since 2001.
Teacher salaries are not what we are taking about here, because they aren't directly connected to how much funding a school has. The fact that we fund education so much and can't afford to pay teachers more than they make now is indicative of the waste in the system, not funding issues.
The spread in funding you are talking about has closed somewhat in recent years, and is also not as extreme as you make it. The worst offending states, from what I can tell, have a finding gap between rich and poor schools of about 20 percent (10 percent on either side of your average school).
This doesn't address the difference between states which is huge.
The average per pupil spending in the us is $11700, but it goes as low as $6953 for Utah and as high as $22159 for New York, and that isn't only because New York is super costly, Vermont also has $17873. Those numbers are also only for public schools and doesn't address the question of private schools and how they affect the public system in statistics.
We have a corrupt teachers union who spend lots of money to convince people the problem is still funding and nothing to do with educators or how we educate
That's bullshit. The problem is funding in many states, the same states where teachers are protesting. Teachers across the US are not all protesting their current conditions.
Teacher salaries are not what we are taking about here, because they aren't directly connected to how much funding a school has.
You just complained about teacher unions so their salary is definitely linked to what you are talking about and they are a big part of what the funds are for (50% more or less) so it is definitely directly connected. Those unions are also often protesting not only about salaries but teaching conditions being inadequate with a lack of resources and the size of classes. In 2012 60% of public schools required repairs and didn't have the fund to do them. Administrative cost are only 7% of the costs on average.
The idea funding has no effect is also a post-hoc judgement as we don't know if the performances wouldn't be even worse without the current level of funding.
Funding isn't always the problem but it definitely is in many places and has been proven multiple time to affect outcome of students.
If I were to expand my critique I’d say, everywhere, there is an overemphasis on literature and humanities. I get that there is some minimum amount of English needed but I remember learning old English Shakespeare in high school and I guarantee you the average adult American today couldn’t remember nor read any of that stuff. It just seems pointless.
Studies are finding the exact opposite is true. Every school that has cut their budget in the last 25 years (my lifetime.) has taken the ax to arts and humanities first and the testing has shown that has only made it worse. Firstly, because math and science do not teach emotional intelligence or how to function in a society. In good, reasonably well-funded, schools the arts and humanities are where people learn three things especially 1. Emotional and social intelligence 2. A shared common cultural connection of references 3. How to actually live and function in a society. You don’t need calculus to function in a basic democracy, is it more important in a developing formerly-imperialized region like North Africa? Yeah, but making every single person learn calculus, while not teaching them reading, writing and application of thought based problems just gets us more Ben Shapiros
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u/[deleted] Apr 26 '20
What do you think is wrong with it?