[dchess]

As someone that works in K-12 technology (and has for 15 years), the real monopolies aren't the tech giants, they're the Pearsons and Houghton Mifflins of the world that buy out competitors and lock school districts into platforms they can't escape without substantial migration costs.

And don't even get me started on the way they have kept education hostage to high stakes tests.

[ngold]

Education already does not have enough money, then these vampires come in with lock in anti competitive agreements.

Ugg. I wish that money went to teachers.

[SllX]

Alternatively: Education actually has plenty of money, but too much of it is leeched out by low value vendors charging high premiums for easily replaced commodities, low value administrative staff performing easily automated tasks, and public-sector unions filling their coffers and the coffers of friendly politicians, long before teachers receive a penny, many of which then have to shell out for materials out of their own pockets, materials which ought to be provided for by their employers.

I went to public schools which were thick with staff, and for the life of me I could never figure out why there was any more staff than the faculty, the principal, the vice principal, a secretary and maybe a janitor and lunch lady. Even the libraries, IT tasks and sports equipment were maintained by faculty. Janitorial tasks and catering could be good exercises for the kids if you wanted to cut some staff because frankly a good number of kids, myself included, could have used the extra discipline growing up.

Meanwhile there were too many unused classrooms, too many kids per class, too few seats and tables and too few lockers. Teachers were paying for printouts and unreturned textbooks (that the students didn’t return to the teacher) but the administration sure had a thick wad of newsletters, handbooks, forms, reports (not all to do with the students, mostly administrative crap) and all manner of garbage for us to take home every single week.

[secabeen]

I think a lot of the question here is in the Administrator/Faculty divide. Is a special education teacher faculty? What about learning center, where students who need extra help in a specific subject go while the rest of the class continues regular learning? What about specialists who teach computer, science, garden, art, music? (And who give the teachers a break during the school day.)

As for administrators, the ones I see at schools are usually needed: a nurse or medical aide, a psychologist, a librarian, two front desk people (both so you have backup if someone is sick, and so you aren't without someone if a student/parent needs assistance out of the office), custodians are important (you need two, one for daytime, and one for nighttime. Yes, students can do cleanup at some point, but not K-3 at least), etc.

Here's the staff directory of an elementary school near me. Which staff would you cut? http://www2.goleta.k12.ca.us/lapatera/staff-directory

[bsder]

> Alternatively: Education actually has plenty of money

It doesn't--even if you get rid of the "administrative staff".

The Gates Foundation went through and analyzed this for younger students (early middle school and younger). It takes roughly $15K per student do what you need: two fully qualified adults in a classroom of 15 with sufficient resources. This allows you to bring your poor performers up to average in 3 years.

Not good--just average. Every single one of those initiatives were cancelled because of money.

People claim they want better education systems--until they have to actually pay for it.

[SllX]

What were the overhead costs associated with educating each student and why two adults?

For a class of 15, 1 teacher is sufficient, and even if you reduce class sizes to 10, that's one teacher per 10 rather than 1 per 7.5. The school district I grew up in spent about $13K per pupil in the school year following my graduation (easiest year to find quick and dirty data for), and still had all of the problems I outlined. I assure you, it wasn't going to high teacher salaries when I was in school.

So how about we do trim off some of that fat, give the teachers a raise, and then evaluate whether we need the additional spend?

[bsder]

> For a class of 15, 1 teacher is sufficient

No, it's not. And we have LOTS of research on that.

Some young child always has a problem. When that happens, the attention of a teacher is completely tied up. You need two so that the class can keep going.

[lotsofpulp]

I assume formal research from Gates Foundation has some credibility, at least compared to conclusions from anecdotal observations.

[SllX]

Sure, but show me.

[itronitron]

I might be okay with this if powerschool wasn't a total effing mess of a platform, but I'm not because it is absolutely a total piece of shit.

While I appreciate that there is some complexity to what the platform needs to accommodate, navigating the user interface usually involves more work than completing an assignment.