Thread: Where does all the money in schools go to?

Right but again this is not a funding issue so don't put it on funding like we would fix education by throwing more money at it. (I know you weren't saying that but your point about graduation implies its a financial issue so you have to clarify that). Our education system is terribly biased and backwards, this is revealed by the very fact that something like graduation exists in the first place.

Nextly, I understand how private companies often receive no bid contracts and bypass natural competition. But which ones? Don't be Glenn Beck, don't just insinuate people are doing bad things without explaining what that is or who's doing it. It's not exactly news that our public funding is grabbed up by profit driven companies. The hundred dollar hammer rumor has been around since the 80s.

Originally Posted by Omnis Dei

Right but again this is not a funding issue so don't put it on funding like we would fix education by throwing more money at it. (I know you weren't saying that but your point about graduation implies its a financial issue so you have to clarify that). Our education system is terribly biased and backwards, this is revealed by the very fact that something like graduation exists in the first place.

I do think there should be going more funding into it. The American citizen should pay higher taxes into the educational system, depending on someone's wealth, so the tuition fee can go down a lot. That way people who don't have the financial capacities to go to the university will be able to do so.

You're missing the point that there is already more than enough money going in to it.
But it's obviously not actually going anywhere productive.

Although I do think all education should be paid for by taxes.

Originally Posted by tommo

You're missing the point that there is already more than enough money going in to it.
But it's obviously not actually going anywhere productive.

Although I do think all education should be paid for by taxes.

No there's not enough money pumped in by the government. By people, yes, but the system should be regulated by the government, otherwise we have the nefast consequences that we see now, basically schools turning into businesses asking a ridiculous amount of money. I think they should socialize education, just like Obama did with health care.

I mean, how can you be surprised that they're asking so much money if you're basically dealing with a business? If you're buying a product, like, for example a Lee Cooper jeans, the largest percentage of the price you're giving for it isn't about the fabric or the labor.. it's just going to the brand. Companies will always try to make as much money as they possibly can. Just basic economic principle.

Originally Posted by Omnis Dei

Right but again this is not a funding issue so don't put it on funding like we would fix education by throwing more money at it. (I know you weren't saying that but your point about graduation implies its a financial issue so you have to clarify that). Our education system is terribly biased and backwards, this is revealed by the very fact that something like graduation exists in the first place.

My issue is with that much money going into it and so little coming out of it, I thought that was clear.

Nextly, I understand how private companies often receive no bid contracts and bypass natural competition. But which ones? Don't be Glenn Beck, don't just insinuate people are doing bad things without explaining what that is or who's doing it. It's not exactly news that our public funding is grabbed up by profit driven companies. The hundred dollar hammer rumor has been around since the 80s.

I wasn't insinuating that, I was merely pointing out that a lot of money goes into schools and yet they are total shit. I started this thread because I don't know where the money is going and am curious, again I thought I made that clear in the OP. That's why I asked questions rather than making statements.

Originally Posted by Meeps

I do think there should be going more funding into it. The American citizen should pay higher taxes into the educational system, depending on someone's wealth, so the tuition fee can go down a lot. That way people who don't have the financial capacities to go to the university will be able to do so.

We're not talking about University here, or at least I'm not. I was mainly talking about public schools where there is no fee at all. Except the taxes you pay, which is total bullshit in my opinion. But we can talk about that in a different thread, I don't wanna get too off topic.

To stay on topic, you don't think that $10,000 is enough money to provide someone with an education for a year(not even, only 9 months really)?

Originally Posted by ThePieMan

I find that most independent schools are like this. Here in the UK some independent schools (Eton, Harrow etc) are on the verge of hitting over £25,000 a year - and thats just on tuition fee.

Yeah, it's ridiculous. Somebody's getting paid a hell of a lot of money and it's not the teachers. That really needs to be switched around. Administrators are far less important than teachers are.

Originally Posted by StonedApe

Yeah, it's ridiculous. Somebody's getting paid a hell of a lot of money and it's not the teachers. That really needs to be switched around. Administrators are far less important than teachers are.

I don't think you know what you're talking about here... Eton is one of the top private schools in the UK. They have a student teacher ratio of 10:1, so even if everything went to teachers that'd be a salary of £250,000 per year, which I wouldn't be particularly surprised by. In any case it's a small private organisation paid for directly by its customers; they're not going to be apathetic if it all went to pointless bureaucrats, are they?

Originally Posted by Xei

I don't think you know what you're talking about here... Eton is one of the top private schools in the UK. They have a student teacher ratio of 10:1, so even if everything went to teachers that'd be a salary of £250,000 per year, which I wouldn't be particularly surprised by. In any case it's a small private organisation paid for directly by its customers; they're not going to be apathetic if it all went to pointless bureaucrats, are they?

I really don't know much about UK schools other than that they aren't as shitty as US schools. I was talking about US schools when I made that comment.

Originally Posted by Omnis Dei

I apologize, I suppose I misread your tone. To be fair, Glenn Beck would use the same excuse. He's not making allegations, he's just raising questions. There is probably a lot of companies profiting from schools the same way companies profit from prison and military and every other public institution. The companies selling the school their cafeteria food are not public utilities and we assume the school will do its best to hunt the best bargain but the result is the opposite, they're bribed or extorted into bleeding our funds dry with outrageously overpriced shit so somebody can make an extra buck. But this is not just a problem with school, this is the problem with government and in fact schools are probably less affected by this because the people spending the budget are more invested in the community.

That's why I find your OP troubling because it implies that every school spends exactly 10,000 per child and then they smuggle the rest away. The truth is every dime they get is averaged out per child (the school is there for children in the first place) but the children are getting majorly ripped off by the purchases being made.

I got that number from the government actually. That is how much they spend per student(actually it's a more than that), though obviously they don't spend that much on each student, it's averaged out.
http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=66

My point is more that I don't think these students are getting $10,000 worth of education each year. I recently heard Ron Paul comment on how many home schooled kids get a better education with $500 a year. Obviously its a different environment and they don't get everything that you get from a normal school but it's pretty obvious that the schools could be doing much better considering how much money they get.

Originally Posted by StonedApe

I really don't know much about UK schools other than that they aren't as shitty as US schools. I was talking about US schools when I made that comment.

Well, the comment you were responding to was about the British system. Eton isn't remotely representative of UK schools in general.

Originally Posted by StonedApe

I wasn't insinuating that, I was merely pointing out that a lot of money goes into schools and yet they are total shit. I started this thread because I don't know where the money is going and am curious, again I thought I made that clear in the OP. That's why I asked questions rather than making statements.

I apologize, I suppose I misread your tone. To be fair, Glenn Beck would use the same excuse. He's not making allegations, he's just raising questions. There is probably a lot of companies profiting from schools the same way companies profit from prison and military and every other public institution. The companies selling the school their cafeteria food are not public utilities and we assume the school will do its best to hunt the best bargain but the result is the opposite, they're bribed or extorted into bleeding our funds dry with outrageously overpriced shit so somebody can make an extra buck. But this is not just a problem with school, this is the problem with government and in fact schools are probably less affected by this because the people spending the budget are more invested in the community.

That's why I find your OP troubling because it implies that every school spends exactly 10,000 per child and then they smuggle the rest away. The truth is every dime they get is averaged out per child (the school is there for children in the first place) but the children are getting majorly ripped off by the purchases being made.