So, I’ve been thinking about the fight for education a lot lately, both because I work for a college as well as the large numbers of students, current and former, who have bought into this myth. In a previous post, I gave a ballpark figure for illustrative purposes only, to show that most courses do not actually consume the costs paid by students at even the state college level, which excludes any exigent subsidies from the government or funds acquired in property taxes, extra fees imposed by institutions, etc.
Don’t listen to me. Do your own homework. Do your own research. That’s always good advice. Besides, I can usually tell when you're stealing someone else's. One of the pieces of evidence shown me as ‘proof’ that we ‘don’t spend enough’ was from a blog post (clearly left-leaning based on links to other blogs found there) which did not link you to the source from which they took it. Here are a few things I have found covering a large bridge of time. They cover the George Bush, William Clinton, George HW Bush, and Barack Obama administrations. That evinces to me that for the last decade or more the problem has not been one of the amount of money but rather how and on what the money was spent.
1990
Spending and learning are not correlated. Teachers have great compensation and smaller classes in America.
2001
2003
2007
Payment per pupil and test scores seem inversely correlated
Nobody spends more on education than we do. No other nation has teachers who have less power, authority, and respect than in this one.
2008
2009
Even though Nevada has sought to increase funding and even though teacher salaries continued to increase during the budget malaise, our schools have not increased in performance
2010
public schools pay almost twice per student as private schools with a much lower return on investment in terms of performance
some schools spend on things that have nothing to do with academics, like research or sports or student centers
2011
University in IL gets $19 million to expand holdings because the president's husband is a long-term Democrat House member. Brand new building in 2008, expanded in 2011, replete with a parking structure that will surely flood, and replacement landscaping including scultures
University in IL gets $19 million to expand holdings because the president's husband is a long-term Democrat House member. Brand new building in 2008, expanded in 2011, replete with a parking structure that will surely flood, and replacement landscaping including scultures
In short, it is not that insufficient money is spent, only that the money is spent on things at best tangentially related to actual education. They are revamping buildings that they do not need (why did UNR need a new library and student union and what are they doing with those old buildings now?). They are hiring more administrators who do not actually bear fruit. We have hall monitors in Las Vegas who do not patrol the halls because they have no authority to do anything. We have deans who do not discipline. We have counselors who promise “we’ll get you loads of scholarships” and then do nothing of their own volition to help their own valedictorians to get a dime. We are building new schools and remodeling old labs when we have old ones that are fine. We are hiring teachers who are not proficient in the subject or the language of instruction. We allow people into our schools who are not citizens or children of citizens and cannot speak English. We require teachers to ‘teach’ children who do not demonstrate that they want to be taught. We are so afraid to fail them that we do not teach them the tough lessons of life when the ramifications are small.
When the stopgap education funding came in, a hall monitor was hired for $40K, a counselor for $89K, a custodian for $57K, etc. Additionally, the same report notes that 19.5 teachers were retained at an average salary of $60K, which is a pretty good wage since I outearn only that hall monitor. It’s not even apparently that teachers are underpaid!
In a budget crisis, Harry Reid worked to obtain land. Nevermind that we have no money to put anything on that land or maintain it.
Although I know this is from a blog, it’s from the CSN President’s blog, which is how he communicates with us. He talks about cutting the Henderson campus, the learning extension centers, and the softball program. We can absorb, at least for my department, all of the courses in buildings that are already being used with a minimum of headache and additional per campus expense, far offset by the proposed cuts. Not that I want to cut these things, since so many of the students who attend classes in Henderson live very close to the campus and even ride their bikes to class betimes, but it would solve some of our new staffing issues.
Some of the things I mention in this article I know from personal experience. Without permission to share those stories, I will mention them aside, but as for myself I am willing to fall on my sword, not to do what the students want, but to do what is best for them. Since when do young people have any idea what is best for them? We did not when I was young. What is so special about this generation that it demands computers it uses to escape the classroom and extra assignments to make grades when they don’t do the homework already assigned?
We do not need more money in education. We need more education in education. I find it somewhat ironic that people constantly complain about how teachers get burnt out because we compensate them so little and demand of them so much, and yet these same voices insist on establishment of a world where people do things ‘because they’re the right thing to do’. Although I do not work for free (at least as long as I have bills), there are people like me who are willing to do the job for the pay it offers. I actually like my job; some of the highest paid ‘educators’, which are really no more than lecturers or stop-gap appointments because they can’t find anyone better, are the most unhappy doing the job! Money no more makes men happy than it makes education work.
Years ago, I read Ivan Doig’s novel, The Whistling Season. I never had a one room schoolhouse, but there were some distinct advantages of that system over the top-down authoritarian autocracy that exists under the federal Department of Education (so gross a misnomer in that nobody who works there educates anyone). Teachers cannot discipline. Students are not held responsible. Grades cannot reflect aptitude. Now we get ‘Participation Awards’, or worse- we spend an inordinately long time on the sports awards and give individual attention and then gloss over academic achievement. We are sending a message that academics is a subsidiary function of academically-oriented institutions. No wonder the students aren’t there to learn! They are there to get drunk, get drugs, get girls, get grades, etc.- anything except to acquire knowledge or wisdom.
During the Gibbons Governorship, I wrote his office a letter. I have a plan to actually fix education, but it requires someone who is not going to allow himself to be held ransom by those who will attempt to end his political career. It requires a statesman who will do what is right because it is the right thing to do, even if he loses everything to do it let alone gets no benefits directly from the attempt. We need serious people to tackle serious problems. I will send that same sentiment to the current governor, and I am happy to make my case and defend my stance before the legislature and the media and whatever other venues may be required.
I am a teacher because that’s what I find animating to do. I could earn the same amount of money driving a forklift for a Wal-Mart distribution center, but that is neither intellectually stimulating nor satisfying enough to satiate my soul. This is what I love. At least I have a more unique idea than ‘throw more money at it’, however much courage and honesty mine requires.
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