As I see it - the overcrowding is the result of low employment - or lack there of. Think about it. Say a city has 5 big factories, over time, and due in part to local and federal govt taxes/regulations - 3 of those factories shut down and leave. They end regular unemployment for those that come out of high school (majority of workers) - the support personnel (engineers, craftsman, skilled, college educated), and what ever taxes they were putting into the local economy (secondary employment: i.e WalMart, grocery, restaurants, etc.) - the schools housed their kids - but when a large segment went out of work - most choose to follow the work elsewhere - or move to places that had similar positions - the kids went with.
Now the school board has a huge loss of state funded revenue for public schools - and now have to shut 2 of the 5 elementary schools they have - move those students in already pressing classrooms uping the number per class - but those teachers from those schools are now out of work - plus the support personnel - so they must move to seek work for their skill set...
A ripple effect. But the national education people - realize that schools all across the nation - are dealing with the same issues - so - technology is introduced - plans are drawn up to move the majority of students into eLearning centers - cut back on teachers and staff - and overall save money - while on the surface - making offers like, “keep your laptop or iPad” — but where’s the education in the end???
Yes - looking at it at the beginning looks sweet - it’s following the road to the end is where you come up on the junk yard...these school systems are trying to survive - so students are pushed into overcrowding - while the school structure, buildings, and other maintenance issues are pushed to the side - they are trying to wait it out...for what - I have no idea...some magical fairy that will make everything okay...President Spicoli isn’t coming — he’s too busy buying pizza!
Does this make sense?
Your posts very accurately describes the “education-industrial complex”.
Socialist-entitlement K-12 schooling is big business. In many counties ( such as the last two counties I lived in) socialist-entitlement schooling was the single largest employer in the county with the largest single payroll. No other business came even close to those government K-12 numbers.
So?...With so many sucking off the teat of the government socialist-entitlement school taxes, do you think this is an easy entrenchment to reform?
With so many socialist-entitlment school employees sitting in the pews do you think ministers will be willing to bite the hand putting money in the collection plate? By the way, I wonder how many ministers have spouses working for the schools?
Finally, Common Core will soon grow its cadre of Democrat-voting workers feeding, promoting, and upholding the education-industrial complex.
Believe it or not, city schools are not under-funded. The average annual per-pupil expenditure is $12-15k. That's about $250,000 per year for a class of 20 students.
Where does the money go? 80-90% of the typical school budget goes to teacher salaries. In the cities, a large percentage goes to administration.
In Washington, D.C., for example, there are 100 times as many administrators per-pupil as in the parochial schools of the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C.
I used to head a school choice group, and am familiar with the stats. Don't expect the media to repeat them. Maybe Beck will someday.