I’ve also seen US teachers spending hundreds of dollars out of their own pockets to stock classrooms.

I spent a lot of time in European schools and I’ve never heard of teachers having to stock their own classrooms or fundraise for things like playgrounds, etc.

  • Altima NEO@lemmy.zip
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    7 months ago

    It wasn’t always the case. Back when I was a kid, the school provided most things. Textbooks, crayons, paper, scissors, glue, etc. I had to bring myself, a pencil and eraser, and a notebook.

    Somewhere along the line they figured out they could be pocketing that money instead of spending it on the kids, let the parents deal with the expenditures. Now you’ve got superintendents with quarter of a million dollar salary, over-budgeted construction projects that aren’t always necessary (and they arent allowed to reallocate those funds elsewhere, so they just construct more bullshit), and they still find the time to screw over the teachers (who are making as much as a highly paid retail employee).

  • Neato@ttrpg.network
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    7 months ago

    Schools are sabotaged. They underfund the actual school so they can’t afford common supplies like this, or repair their AC or building upkeep, etc. They vastly underpay teachers so there are fewer of them, increasing workload per teacher so there’s more burnout and less effective teaching. They make wedge issues like the book bans, sex ed and anti-trans bills that prevent teachers teaching the obvious reality in order to increase anger at teachers to burn more out. They pass bills that allow people to take their taxes out of schools to move to other schools in richer areas or to keep if they homeschool (to indoctrinate).

    They are the US republicans and the purpose of this is to ensure the most amount of poorer people are uneducated, don’t get a chance to get higher education. Which leads to ensuring fewer have well-paying jobs, and more people live desperately and can’t quit their jobs, move or exercise their right to assembly. This ensures a life-long near-slave caste of workers so billionaires have cheap labor and who are easily manipulated emotionally through fear keeping Republicans in power.

  • CM400@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    Our schools are generally underfunded and hardly anyone with any real power gives two shits.

  • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network
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    7 months ago

    Conservatives, mostly.

    Conservatives believe in neither education nor government. It’s no surprise that when they have power, they fuck up both of those things.

    Also racism. A common facet of conservatism. It’s part of why conservatives don’t like public programs- the wrong sort of people might benefit.

    • nutsack@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      the conservative point ive been hearing is that government shouldn’t spend money on education, because the real problem is fatherless households. im not really sure what to do with it

      • Kit Sorens@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        7 months ago

        That’s a smoke screen. Another is the “liberal brainwashing machine” school system scare. What they fear is the statistic that higher educated individuals trend towards populism and progressivism. They see higher education of youths as a threat to their political base, which turns into “spineless parents sending kids to liberul brainwashing camps funded by the gubmnt.”

  • Psiczar@aussie.zone
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    7 months ago

    In Australia, for a public school student, the school provides a list of pencils, pens, glue etc the child will need for the year. You can choose to buy it from wherever but there are school suppliers that will provide everything in a pack for a fee and deliver it to your door.

    There is no expectation that the teacher would pay for anything out of their pocket.

  • FeelzGoodMan420@eviltoast.org
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    7 months ago

    Because education in the US is a fucking joke, just like everything else in this shithole country.

    Edid: sorry i was in a shitty mood earlier lol

    • ChillPenguin@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Don’t apologize. This America isn’t the same image our grandparents had of America. What we are seeing now are the deep rooted problems and the true America. Our country is a fucking joke.

  • vortic@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    Many people here are talking about under-funding of education in the US. If you look at expenditure per student vs GDP per capita, the US is actually doing fairly well when compared to the rest of the world. Our problems aren’t funding related (though I wouldn’t argue against more funding). Our problems are allocation and priority related.

    See here for data: https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/cmd/education-expenditures-by-country

    • PancakeBrock@lemmy.zip
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      7 months ago

      I do construction. My company is building a new $40,000,000 school in a town with a population of 143.

      • vortic@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        Wow, how many students are they expecting? I assume they’ll be pulling from a lot of the surrounding area.

        • PancakeBrock@lemmy.zip
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          7 months ago

          That I really don’t know online it says 97 kids in k-12. It’s in a very rural area and the second phase of construction not in the original bid for the school is housing so when they hire more teachers they have a place to live.

          While I don’t think it’s bad they are getting a new school but going with the op it is kind of crazy when they can do that but my kids teachers ask us to supply the classroom with all kinds of stuff.