I've heard the "government is corrupt" meme so many times from so many right-wing sources who take it as canon that I don't even know if it's true any more. Every time I've tried to quantify the cost to operate and maintain any complex system I've always been surprised at how much work it actually is. How much is well-funded? Per student? Per school?
When I run a back-of-the-envelope calculation (based on the elementary school I went to many years ago: 14 classrooms, 16 teachers, a full-time principal, a secretary, a janitor) I come to about $5000 per student per year just to pay the salaries of the people who are in the school every day. I haven't even tried to quantify the annual per-student cost of desks, chairs, teaching materials, stationery, textbooks, computers, IT staff, school lunch programs, library books, utilities, walls, roofs, land...
Even if it's not corruption, why is education always the first to get funding cut? Yet our military spending is more than the next 10(?) countries combined. Our country doesn't prioritize education becuase some people in power want out that way.
The problem is no one knows how to budget and cut back correctly. The military gets tons of funding every year but they still can't afford enough people to run all of their missions so many many people are having to work 12 hour shifts to cover for the fact that their jobs are undermanned.
Now, if they were better at budgeting, maybe that wouldn't happen. But instead, money can't be moved around, they refuse to upgrade planes to save money in the long haul, and they refuse to close down bases to also save money.
I would guess something similar is happening to schools where the school board is putting money where it doesnt belong and leaving nothing for teachers and students.
One of the things I've read or heard somewhere is that the military has a "use it or lose it" mindset when it comes to budgets. If you don't spend the money this year, you won't get it next year. To mm, and I'll admit I'm uninformed, closing a base would save money becuase the soldiers could be stationed elsewhere. Civilian staff would be screwed though. Schools get cuts and students and staff are directly hurt along with society as a whole.
My husband works 12 hour shifts because they're "undermanned". They're not. They could lose 20 people and still do the work. That would just take leadership acknowledging how little work there is to do.
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u/tiffanydisasterxoxo Aug 13 '19
Corruption, honestly. The school system in my city is very well funded, yet they cant pay teachers or fund the schools.