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

A Problem we faced here in Australia A few months back where the government threw a Shit tonne of Money at schools as part of an education plan and business' just went and milked as much money as possible from the plan. A lot of the money spent building new buildings for schools, and everything went wrong.
One school paid $AUS250,000 for a building PLAN, not even the building itself, and then when the building was complete it didn't even cater for the needs of the school.
Maybe the same thing could be happening in the US on a less noted scale?
Tommo could Probably tell you more about the education plan screw up

Actually, I can't lol

$250,000 for plans? Where did this happen?

The only school I know of what they used the money for is my primary school.
And it was very beneficial, they expanded the library and built a computer lab.

Originally Posted by tommo

Actually, I can't lol

$250,000 for plans? Where did this happen?

The only school I know of what they used the money for is my primary school.
And it was very beneficial, they expanded the library and built a computer lab.

This was happening all over NSW. One school got a school assembly hall to small for the school. Some schools were getting buildings they didn't want. Companies were way overpricing the work they were doing etc

My local school district releases a budget statement annually, perhaps you should look into finding one for your school. Imo, we need to regulate the public school system more, and give it more funding. Education is essential, and it shouldn't be an area that we cut back on to save money. The governor of my state recently imposed massive cuts on public school funding, and now my highschool has cut the french program, all shop classes, all the CAD classes, and canceled many extra-curricular activites.

Why should other people pay for your 'extra curricular activities'?

Originally Posted by Xei

Why should other people pay for your 'extra curricular activities'?

Why should other people pay for whatever you think people should pay for?

they don't, they are not funded by the school with the acceptance of sports programs (because sports deserves more educational funding than drama or band). but the school is refusing to even allow people to use the building after hours, and like 8 teachers got laid off (its a small school so that is a large number). And although it may seems frivolous to you to fund art programs and music programs in public schools, without them I think there would be a much higher rate of delinquency among minors.
it is no wonder America has such a terrible school system with people thinking like that.

I mean honestly, tell me how its right that we spend over 14 times as much money on military expenses annually than education? does no one but me think we have our priorities backwards?

Originally Posted by randosity

I mean honestly, tell me how its right that we spend over 14 times as much money on military expenses annually than education? does no one but me think we have our priorities backwards?

You can't compare different categories of spending on a dollar-by-dollar basis. For example, take a household. Say you spend $2000/month on mortgage payments but only $400/month on food. Does this mean you value your house 5 times more than you value food? Of course not, one doesn't follow from the other. Similarly, military spending can't be compared to anything else because wars, or even pure defense, is bloody expensive. In fact, pure defense is the most expensive of all, because you must constantly pay for soldiers and weapons that are never even used.

If you have a moral problem with what your government spends money on, then state it on moral terms. Don't be a coward and hide behind numbers.

Originally Posted by randosity

I mean honestly, tell me how its right that we spend over 14 times as much money on military expenses annually than education? does no one but me think we have our priorities backwards?

With as little scathing sarcasm as possible: You must be THE only person who thinks our militarism is out of hand.

I still believe school funding should come locally, from the district only as a tax levy. If parents wish to support their children's schooling, they pay a property tax on it. If not, well that is their choice. That's how it works where I live, and it works well enough I presume. It's no one's responsibility to educate a student other than the student, the parent, and the teacher. Bureaucrats and politicians have no place in education.

I just found out that the aus government is making us pay an extra ~250-300 dollars a year to the university to pay for them to make improvements to their campuses and "helping students with programs" etc.

Isn't that exactly what school fees are for!??!????
Seriously wtf? How the shit do they even come up with this fucking bullshit?

Originally Posted by tommo

I just found out that the aus government is making us pay an extra ~250-300 dollars a year to the university to pay for them to make improvements to their campuses and "helping students with programs" etc.

Isn't that exactly what school fees are for!??!????
Seriously wtf? How the shit do they even come up with this fucking bullshit?

Because they rely on the fact that most people haven't heard of it...

I'm changing my attitude more and more in regard to this issue. I decided all monopoly is bad because the real accountability is only demonstrated in participation. Even if an institution is accountable to voters, the PR machines will always be hard at work to make sure voters act against their interests.

So I would like to see a voucher system with no standards of entrance. By this I mean you cannot exclude a student based on test scores. This was the main problem I found with the voucher argument, I thought it was more like scholarships and I think scholarships are just a form of prejudice. But if someone can take the money that is supposed to be spent per student and use that money in any school system which meets civil rights and other requirements, it would be much healthier for our education system.

The fact is that 10% of our education fund goes to the teacher's salary when it ought to be around 50%-60% (since teachers buy their own supplies anyways). All this money disappearing into the salaries of the administration is caused because the people are not allowed to choose where their tax dollars are spent. I still believe everyone should be required to pay for public education but I believe no one should ever be forced to use one institution over another. Like a Charter school, students who choose to opt out of the district's main public school ought to also be able to opt their tax dollars out and spend those tax dollars on the actual institution they choose.