There are great numbers of people protesting the cuts to educational spending in Nevada. Some of these people say that the governor is in support of Big Corporations or anti-education. It is simply a practical matter. We cannot afford to pay for every whim of man that he wills government should provide him. We should never have been paying for some things in the first place.
More money spent on education does not directly correlate with better educated students. When my students don't show up with pen and paper and their books, I assume they are not really ready to learn. As I work in education, let me give you a brief rundown albeit not completely accurate to show you how little money is actually spent on education.
Bio 196 and Lab
Lab Fee $50
Enrollment 34 from department chair decision
Cost per credit $100.00
Credit hours 4
'Income' per section $20,400.00
Lab instructor -$3,600.00 based on adjunct pay
Lecture instructor -$3,600.00 based on adjunct pay
Room costs -$375.00 fixed as part of university building expenditures amortized over building life span
Lab costs -$4,500.00 cost of materials for lab annually plus fixed equipment amortized over the life of equipment
Lab prep per section -$1,052.63 wage of lab prep
Utility costs -$2,250.00 average utility cost per week multiplied by weeks of instruction
Income per class $5,022.37
Fraction of costs that go to education 75.38%
Philosophy course
Enrollment 50
Cost per credit $100.00
Credit hours 3
"Income' per section $15,000.00
Lab instructor
Lecture instructor -$3,600.00
Room costs -$125.00
Lab costs
Lab prep per section
Utility costs -$750.00
Income per class $11,275.00
Fraction of costs that go to education 24.83%
All that, and the government still subsidizes education. For what then is the rest of the money spent? Not on the education of your kids.
These examples show the direct expenses associated with the education of your children. Some extra money is recuperated for the biology course in the form of laboratory fees. However, on average, only half the money you pay in tuition is going to pay for the actual educational process of the students, and that in addition to the amount you already pay in property taxes or in that same tax embedded as a hidden portion of your rent.
I have much more to say on this, but I have an appointment to meet, and so I'll forbear for now. Topics include: who goes to school and why, responsibility of students, responsibility of parents, choosing the right teachers, empowering the right teachers, 'does spending correlate with performance?' and 'just teach them already, dagnabit'.
No comments:
Post a Comment