If the American population truly believed in education and laws protecting education funding teachers wouldn’t have to pay for basic supplies, books, and technology. Instead we allow the wealthiest groups in our rich country to promote and support politicians who only protect tax loopholes, corporate welfare, the military, the over populated prison population and their multi million dollar campaigns. For example the liberal state of California spends more money to per prison inmate than a child’s education annually. We also spend more money for the military than the next 11 wealthiest countries combined in the world. The low funding level for education nationwide is designed to keep the masses ignorant and stupid. It is much easier to manipulate this type of populous when public educators aren’t given the funding to properly teach our children.
1
I shudder to think of how much money I spent on my classrooms over the years. I retired at the end of this past year and look forward to the savings NOT teaching will afford me. Now if I can make my pension stretch far enough and my small investments are safe, perhaps I can feed myself when I’m old. Don’t get me started about the social security I will NOT be eligible to collect -even though I paid into it for 40 quarters - solely because I chose to teach. I made the choice to teach because I felt I had something to offer young people. I knew I wasn’ t going to get rich, but neither did I think my dedication would be repaid with the disdain of my state legislators. Their total lack of regard for my students and our schools is nothing short of disgusting ad demoralizing.
As we ask our government to provide less in public services (education, but you name it), we are intentionally creating a country more in keeping with seventeenth century feudal Europe, complete with the world's largest underclass. You cannot provide for a country of 350 million souls in the twenty-first century by funding it on nineteenth century levels. Likewise, if we continue to neglect educating our young, we will achieve several undesirable outcomes. Our brightest will depart America for countries with foresight and opportunity, or we will create the largest under class, and their associated costs (food, shelter, first responders, jails, morgues). Our whole short-sighted approach to economics and government decision making reflects a political decision to lead by moral evasion. Ask any corporate captain how they stay successful in a competitive marketplace, and they will tell you they invest in their companies, they do not let them fall into neglect, the surest road to bankruptcy.
The problems are not symtoms from lack of funds. The US spends nearly the most per-student as any country in the world.
The problems are from mis-management and what happens when you depend on bureaucrats and government to do a good job and care about quality. It just will not happen.
This is exactly the model the GOP prefers. Voluntary contributions by teachers, corporations, churches, and parents to support the education system. Tax dollars are wasted on education and funding schools when republicans don't have children in them is simply not logical. If anything educating people turns them into liberals.
2
Teachers as a matter of cours
It is notable that male teachers highlighted in this article have higher salaries than female teachers—even though the salaries of both are much too low for the good work teachers do day in and day out. Salaries reflect our values of women and other groups—particularly our young and old in American society. As a result, these vulnerable groups bear this burden of our upended social values.
1
Dear Ms. Sedgwick,
After reading your article on the deplorable conditions of classrooms and books, I know if a database was developed to find materials that could be sent from schools to schools it would only be a matter of transporting them to to the needed places.
As a retired media specialist and English teacher for close to 40 years, I know that schools discard books, especially those schools who are better off then the ones you reported on . It would make so much sense to communicate the needs and the surplus that could provide for those schools who really need them.
I'm not sure how to go about this but I would like to discuss it further with you. Maybe you can lead me in the right direction to get it off the ground.
These children are the future; but being subjected to these conditions is demoralizing. Each school should photographically document these conditions and make them public. Give photobooks to every official responsible, from local to state, to federal. Post them to social media sites:Twitter, FB, Medium, etc.
2
Teachers have always been expected to use their own money for school materials. Our district has been underfunded by the State by millions of dollars a year by the state’s own formula. I am lucky to be coteaching with a special education teacher, and at least we get to cut expenses in half. I regularly put $400-$500 into a school year. We used to get a $300 tax write off for teachers, but Trump saw to it that we lost that. Christie saw to it that our funding worsened and retirement benefits slashed.
2
Why do we spend so much more than other Western countries towards education, yet our teachers are paid peanuts and our schools are falling apart?
Why, why?
1
It seems that Corporate America would rather spend the money on outsourcing its jobs to lower the cost of labor and skills rather than invest in the future of its work force. Then they complain that the skills needed do not exist in America. How will they exist if there is no effort to improve the materials needed to learn. its a wonder that students can even read and write after graduation.
2
The stories of teachers are horrific, frightening, and harrowing. The educational system is failing to provide them with the resources necessary to provide children with the education they are guaranteed. So, how does it impact them? Teachers are one part of the equation, but what about students across the nation forced to "learn" under these conditions? Can we have a story about them?
1
The malaise does not apply just to our beleaguered champions in secondary education. I retired after a PhD and 42 years as a "full professor" in higher education at a terminal salary of $92,000. Job requirements included landing competitive funding from public and other sources with declining budgets, and an increase in required learning modules to increase sensitivity of student issues and rights.
On top of that is a general scorn politicians and the general public has for "coddled educators."
3
At the core of this shameful situation, I see a simple but pathetic belief.
Many politicians, wealthy individuals and high level corporate leaders believe (consciously or unconsciously) that people/children of lower socioeconomic status are inferior.
How else could people with the power to change things allow this kind of neglect to occur?
5
A friend of mine who is an elementary school teacher in the Desert Sands School District in southern CA asked for help to make window coverings for her 1st grade classroom. The school district was mandating the installation of window shades or curtains of some sort to prevent clear sight of the rooms in an active shooter situation. But the district didn't provide any resources to the individual teachers - simply expected each teacher to shoulder the expense and trouble of doing so themselves. I couldn't believe that the district was forcing teachers to reach into their own pockets to protect their students!
5
I teach 10th grade English in Mississippi. In many schools in our state, we are in the same shape as many of these teachers and schools. This is my 25th year teaching in the same school, and I guess I am lucky because my administration down to the janitor supports me in my classroom. Financially, I am doing OK because my kids are grown and out supporting themselves, and there's no husband in the picture. This pretty much means that if I want to read a novel with my students, I can get it without having to worry about where the $$ will come from. It should not be this way; I do not see how teachers who still have families at home support themselves on a teacher's salary. Why does our country, one of the greatest in the world, not support education more?
2
Proud teacher for 25 years. My district is a big comminity with a big tax base with many mid size businesses that help the bottom line for the regular taxpayer. Having said that there are always budget struggles each year and state funding is always in doubt. My community is urban and most of the kids are on public assistance in my building. When the economy bottomed out ten years ago we gave back in terms of salary. We have not regained. Just last year alone I have spent hundreds of dollars on classroom furniture, reading materials and supplies. My husband has built and repaired for me and also come in on weekends to help me move my supplies. He has also been supportive while Ive spent our money on my job. My textbooks are 11 years old and any of the maps in my room are from the 1990s. The globe I have is so outdated I only use it to illustrate latitude and longitude lines and am tempted to make it into a lamp that I saw on Pintrest. I dont because the kids like it because they think the 3D physical geographic landforms on it are fun to touch. In my 25 years I have seen so many teachers do so many selfless things because they really do love the kids they work with, try so hard to help them have a better future and just want them to be safe and happy and LEARNING in their classrooms. Teachers deserve respect. Respect like we are finally showing our military and our first responders. Respect. Respect teachers politically, economically and socially.
5
I appreciate the salaries being listed and the out of pocket expenses but some other missing pieces are the amount they contribute to their health benefits and the pension contributions. I am doubtful that their states contribute to the pension program.
2
California, 10 years teaching experience, 90 semester credits of graduate school
$60k per year, $7,800 of personal income spent on classroom supplies.
1
Last year, I spent only $1960 from my own pocket on school supplies - the lowest amount ever in a decade of teaching.
This is in addition to begging for supplies from parents, community members, and crowd-funding sites - generally to the tiune of a few hundred to a few thousand dollars each year.
As educators, we get to deduct $250 in personal expenses.
2
A major issue for local communities are the tax abatements (lower or no taxes) from companies relocating from another place. Look at all the newer auto plants built in the south that receive 30-year tax abatements worth millions. Our local elected officials are so desperate for jobs, that they give away large sums of future revenue so they can have a "photo Op" at the groundbreaking. Many of these companies never hire the promised number of employees, but nobody holds them accountable. It has been proven over and over again, that local tax abatements have no impact on corporate location decisions. In fact a well educated workforce, with excellent job skills are what corporations demand. Mercedes, Toyota, Nissan, and other companies resist paying union wages, gladly take local tax money from schools, and then complain about student achievement. While I have loved teaching, I will retire this year, and wouldn't wish a teaching career on my worst enemy. Corporate America must step up to the plate on tax abatements and the future of our schools. Shame on our business leadership!
9
And how much does it cost the government to fly Mr. Trump to Florida on weekends to play golf at his resort?
4
We should be ashamed, deeply ashamed of how we treat our teachers and our children, and particularly those in our poorest communities. If public school funding was equitable across the nation, or if state and fed government intervened with by subsidizing poorer districts, we wouldn’t have this deplorable and shameful situation. We have the resources to fix this - they are being spent on trivial and completely invested issues like Homeland Security and The Defense Department. We are a nation of fools investing in false threats like terrorism and war, instead of real ones like the education of ALL our children. We are the dumbest of all the developed nations.
6
Public school teaching is a horribly undervalued profession by both state and federal government politicians who are responsible for the systemic and and continuous degrading of this honorable profession.
These politicians do not care about understanding the critical work teachers do, because that effort is not a priority.
When Betsy DeVos was affirmed to lead the U.S. Department, that showed the contempt the federal government had toward public education: allow a bureaucrat with no public education experience to run the public education system. She has done an exemplary job in further degrading public education.
4
Michael Jackson said "They don't really care about us." It seems that the "us" is getting to be a larger and larger percentage of the population.
United States? Equal States? Equality between all people? In such a divided Society where the two major political parties can't agree on Anything?
Except for defense and the military, I almost can't see a Nation or Country...I see 50 Divided Groups or Tribes with Enormous differences of Equality, Income and opportunities between them...heck...even your Medical Insurance and Doctors don't cross State lines or are "Out of Network "!
Where's America? Which one of all these States and such different states of this "Nation" are America?
Oh yes...then they are either Blue States or Red States and it seems never the twain do meet!
Even the police aren't coordinated...all operating differently, trained differently, reacting differently.
Should we add an "R" to each and all Counties?
Seems they may as well all be different Countries!
And the range of Inequality between the lowest and highest in so many areas, aspects and places is Stunning.
To a Canadians, Australians and more and more Europeans...the Disunity, Divisions, Inequality and Dissonance is hard to comprehend.
Get it together People!
ALL of you People together in Common Cause for Everybody and your Common Good...as
The United People of America...not all these disparate states of disgrace and inequality.
One People, One Nation...
...you know the words and intent, make it as Real and as True as it always was meant and hoped to be.
Or go tribal, be selfish, continue the "every Man for Himself" policy.
And Fail.
4
This same story goes on all over the U.S. Why aren't parents up in arms. Their children are being deprived of a quality education. People want low taxes and are cheering because of the tax cut. Conservative writers go on and on about this great achievement for Trump and the American people. Look at the state of our school systems and teacher pay and that is the legacy of low taxes.
6
I was a full time teacher at a Title One school in Florida and have worked as a sub in New Jersey. I can tell you that no one...NO ONE...in this country truly understands how bad our public schools are unless they are a school employee or, most of all, a teacher.
9
Well, I am over 87 years old, and I would not be surprised if those were the same textbooks I used. Although the school buildings are likely not the same. Could be some of the same teachers, though.......
2
This should be criminal.
6
It's tax cuts and bombs over books brought to us by the GOP. That sums it up.
6
So how is corporate America supporting its Country and Youth?
With profits up and taxes now so low I'm sure the likes of Apple and Microsoft as well as many other companies are donating Laptops, Macs etc etc to support the nation they pay so little tax to and do so well from...
No?
I guess they can't afford to help out...other priorities?
28
Like hiring H1-Visa workers.
5
The sad fact is that the vast majority of "edcuation" funding never makes it down to the classroom level. It is consumed by layer after layer of bureaucrats and administrators - in Washington D.C., state capitals, district offices, and administrative offices at school sites.
3
Joe, your argument is sometimes used to further defund public education, on the myth that "those lazy wastrels don't deserve any of my hard-earned money." Do you have well-sourced numbers to back up your claim of "the vast majority of 'edcuation' [sic] funding?"
The NY Times should make a book of all the teachers' responses and all the comments and send it to DeVos!
9
So where are all the grateful "American Dream" digital plutocrats when you need them?? Welcome to the American Dystopia! Ayn Rand, you have a lot to answer for, with your cruel, heartless and deadly doctrines(:
5
Here is the hidden picture in all of this misery: Politicians--mostly those of Republican stripe--do not want to educate poor and middle-class children because educated children grow up to get wise on political corruption and graft. Defunding schools is a premeditated, long-term effort to keep the masses ignorant and easily manipulated and distracted, so leaders can keep picking their pockets. Our miserable schools are fertile grounds to grow autocracy and starve democracy. We must shine a bright light on this anti-American scam, and fight those who are involved at every turn and at all costs.
12
I doubt their intentions are so conspiratorial.
They don't want to pay taxes, and they don't care about anything except paying lower taxes.
That's all there is to it.
Oh for Pete's sake! Just NOW people are appalled? I am a retired NYC public school teacher..............we dealt with that ALL the time................! It is in your own back yard, NYC! The more money you put into vouchers, the more money you throw at charters, the more you starve the public schools of art, science, content, extracurricular activities, repairs, desks, special education services, the poorer the education. Let's stop being disingenuous. This has been a pervasive pattern for the past 25 years. Little by little, bit by bit, education has been cute...........Vocational training........gone.................business courses..........gone...........shop classes......gone.............health services........gone (except for special students who need them, and even then not what they should be...........)Supplies? HA! That only happened in the 60's and 70's and went the way of the Dodo bird............Teacher's choice? 30, 40, 100, 150? Back and forth from little to nothing and back to little..............Laptops that are so old they hardly connect with the internet? Really? Teachers begging to use a copy machine to make copies of things for their classes? So please. The public has looked away from education for years. This is not new. It is just a headline right now.
6
They know…they just don't care.
The states have chosen to spend money on public employee pensions rather than education. That's all she wrote.
3
My wife has been a public school elementary teacher for 20 years. After reading the article, she commented "well, I've taught in much worse conditions." Her comment saddened me more than the article.
5
Reading about public schools and teachers‘ pay in the US I feel in heaven in Germany. As a retired teacher I have an above national average pension. I never complained about my pay.
Schools are underfunded here too, but not to the extent as described in the article. However, the biggest difference is the high regard for public education financed by state tax euros (not just school district taxes).
Of course, I pay higher taxes in Germany than in the US, but I feel it’s worth it: free education from pre-school to university for example. The German taxpayers even gave me a scholarship to pay for my living expenses at university. To top it off, they funded my year at Tulane in 1975. My parents could have never afforded that. This explains why I was not saddled with student loans when I started working. So I owe my good life to the taxpayers‘ investment in my education. I am grateful and pay my taxes taxes (quite) honestly.
14
This literally brought tears to my eyes.
3
I have one suggestion which might help while not addressing the true problem. Schools might reach out to their local Friends of the Public Library group. I am a member of such a group and we often get really good textbooks and dictionaries donated to us from the community which we have no way of using. Right now, my group is currently trolling charter schools to see if they are wanted. I'd bet that anyone who asked could get whatever is donated, most likely free.
2
Education is a basic part of infrastructure building and like the rest of the aging infrastructure in this country, it is in disrepair. Long ago this countries leaders decided to turn its back on the experiment of education for all and turn it into nothing more than daycare for the masses.
2
Let me help many Times readers understand some context. In many areas highlighted here, these teachers are employees of the ”government schools” where irresponsible parents send kids to learn evolution and other godless things. These folks will tell you they highly value education — Christian education at Christian schools. Every dollar sent to government schools promotes secular humanism. The “teachers” are not valiant educators, they’re tools of liberals attacking the Real America. For many solution is to switch to vouchers and eliminate government schools.
2
This article underscores the fact that families with significant wealth: 1) send their children to private schools and have little to no concern for declining conditions in public schools, and 2) use their wealth to control the politicians nominally invested with the responsibility of discharging the public good.
That's a contradiction and the soul of corruption. The appointment and confirmation of Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education is a case in point. While castigating underperforming schools she admitted in a 60 Minutes interview that she had never visited one.
She's an advocate of school vouchers that strip funding from public schools and make it easier for the wealthy to send their kids to private schools.
A fundamental assumption underlying the concept and practice of democracy is the participation of an "informed" electorate. Cut out the informed and you negate the democracy. As Samuel Clemens observed, "America has the finest democracy that money can buy."
As with every other dimension of the Trump administration - principles of public justice and equality are under attack.
And just as in the antebellum or Jim Crow South - poor whites have been suckered into a Devil's bargain of indulging backward, racist sensibilities in exchange for agreeing to accept substandard education, health care, and incomes. That's what is known as a fool's paradise populated by an ignorant majority who are easily manipulated and taken advantage of. A real democracy? In name only!
11
This is beyond an embarrassment, it is an affront to American values. My heart breaks for these forsaken students and their under-compensated dedicated teachers. Betsy DeVos should be required to visit every one of these schools along with some inner-city schools, in all 50 states.
5
Come to LA Unified where half the kids are doomed to dumbness because they do not study, do not try to learn, do not care and because too many of the people who run the schools are corrupt fools who make it hard for teachers to teach when disruptive kids are not stopped or expelled. Instead, troublemakers get restorative justice and remain in classes raising hell, or they are transferred to another class where they raise more hell, not to forget their widespread vandalism to school property and supplies. Teachers are punished though if someone accuses them of offenses, and they are sent to teacher jail where they sit doing nothing all day--with pay--while their crimes are adjudicated by district officials. Sometimes the teachers are not told why they are removed from the classroom. Heck, half of California is an academic wasteland, and I see no prospects for improvement.
6
Working in urban, title one CA public schools, I have seen dictionaires, textbooks, and computers damaged as badly as those in the article - some after only being in the school for a few weeks.
When your computer lab has brand new computers that get vandalized by students so that only 60% of the computers work by the end of September, the distriuct will then have to waste tens of thousands of dollars repairing or replacing the vandalized computers.
Meanwhile, the vandals have given themselves an excuse not to work or learn.
Art of Recycle in Ephrata provides teachers with free teacher resources. Everything is donated by our local community. We have a thrifty craft store that funds all of our programs. Last year we provided over $50,0000 in free teacher supplies at our thrift store prices. The materials were distributed to over 700 teachers, almost 400 organization/school districts covering PA teachers and surrounding states. In 2018, this past January, we provided over $50,000 in free teacher resources in the first week of the year. This project is successful and has been ongoing for almost six years. It can be easily duplicated in any community.
4
The lack of respect for teachers, education, and our nation’s schools in these comments explains how we have reached this state. One suggests that teachers, with their “spare” time and money, become computer repair technicians. Add that to the qualification list that already appears to include psychologist, armed guard, janitor, above and beyond just being an effective teacher! Yes, some administrators may be paid too much, but the idea that people with 20 years or more of experience should be willing to accept poverty level wages is appalling.
How about all the money being drained from public schools to support “charter” schools that are allowed to pick and choose the most prepared students and then expel any that don’t “make the grade” educationally or behaviorally. Or now thousands of students are “home schooled” so they can be sheltered from things like science education and enrolled in “computerized instruction” where they may or may not login or do any actual work! Meanwhile private schools may also be draining public funds with little or no demand that they provide effective education!
The same people who support programs aimed at gutting public schools probably have no problem with multimillionaires and huge corporations paying little or no taxes. Teachers, who already beg for help on line, are also to go individually to corporations and beg them directly for assistance. How about we make a commitment to effective public education supported by tax dollars?
7
Citizens refusing to subsidize their cities' school budgets need to be shamed for their behavior. Many of the people refusing to raise taxes benefited from good public schools, yet they now refuse to "pay it forward." Teachers need to stop subsidizing schools with their meagre salaries. When I began teaching in Philadelphia in the eighties, my salary (for a 3rd year teacher with a Masters Degree) was so low I had trouble paying for bus fare. Ironically, it's usually beginning teachers who have to spend the most money. They enter a classroom with no supplies, books, science equipment and, in my case, children from very poor homes who could not afford basic supplies. Start a campaign to create public awareness. Here's one: #UnderfundedSchools. Let's get all those stories and pictures out there.
8
I am a grampa. I went to six brand new schools in kindergarten and five more in first grade. My pa was in construction and we followed his jobs through many states in the SW.
Ike was President and my pa had been in the Marines. He enlisted two weeks before Pearl Harbor. He finished boot camp on a troop ship on his way to the South Pacific. He came home months after VJ day.
My maternal grandmother Jenny was the old school. She was a widow who lived with her three kids upstairs from the one room school house in a farm town in Minnesota. She fed the students, kept the fires going. Every student graduated.
Brand new schools and brand new books and mostly brand new teachers. Life was wide open and we all did the best we knew how to fit in, somewhere.
WW2 was the last war we did not start and we did win and end. War is now the big business we learned from the Nazis. Wars are now the real big business of the US of A. Very Important Big Shots play War Games with fancy billion dollar weapons and endless supplies of kids that can be taught to shoot and salute.
Keep America Gross. Only greed matters. Public schools are relics of past times.
As Reb Zimmerman said: "Join the Army, it's FREE!"
8
I’m almost 50 years out of high school. My Dad went to the same high school I did. Half the 3rd floor was closed. Years before the floors were deemed dangerous, everyone walked out of that wing, the firedoors where shut & padlocked. Nothing in there had been taken out. I remember using books my Dad had written his name in, sitting at desks his name was scratched in. There had been a cupola on top of the school. They held a class in there. Until the day it started to fall in. Dad was in that last class.
The town I live in now, recently built a new High School. The local paper, to help get the new school, took & published pictures from inside. The basement walls & pipes had mold growing up them, that was the nicest picture. I wrote in & said, we need a new school. But, shouldn’t build one until the city government signs a binding law to do all necessary maintenance from day one. Everyone thought I was crazy. Why do maintenance starting day one, you shouldn’t have to for at least 25 years. Well, look at schools now. No one cares about them. People in towns used to spend time painting, cleaning, even stocking schools during the summer. Janitors used to work year round. In summer, when summer school wasn’t in session, was the time to do things that took time, like scrubbing the hall floors & refinishing the gym floors. Now, those things don’t get done cause there are fewer janitors, who work fewer hours. If residents doen’t care why should anyone. Oh, why new curriculum? Use last
3
The general belief is that schools, like homes are investment products. You do not have to pour more money into investment products to maintain their value.
But there are those who understand that buildings and other infrastructure MUST be maintained ALL the time. In the long run it is much cheaper to repair the roof rather than remediate mold, warped floors, and possibly replacing walls and the whole roof. But then only a foolish person would not look after a building where their children spend almost 1/3rd of their day.
5
There are many schools in the world that have fewer resources and similarly poor conditions and yet their kids are still beating ours in math competitions. The lack of crayons isn't the problem. The whole system is broken. Why does a high school classroom need crayons and construction paper? All you need is a math textbook, a pen, a notepad, and the desire to do well.
Having worked abroad for many years, I noticed several things, in poorer countries, only "wealthy" kids get to go to school so parents beg and scrape to get the money for tuition and uniforms so their kids can have a shot at being "wealthy". The kids see what the family is doing for them and they work hard so as to not show disrespect.
In the US, schools in poor areas (urban and rural) are not seen as pathways to "wealth" instead are seen as social clubs or babysitters. Then where are the jobs? In other countries bright students can go to college in a foreign country and then get good jobs in that country. What can a poor kid from Chicago do? They cannot even afford to go to a community college let alone afford the "bond" needed to attend a "free" foreign college.
So yes, students need a desire to learn and do well, but they also need realistic end goals.
4
In addition to everything highlighted in this article (decrepit buildings, outdated textbooks, insufficient or outdated books and materials, broken or missing furniture, etc.) we must also discuss the reality that students in many public schools are under dreadful stress at home. Many come from families desperately trying to stay above water due to poverty, addiction, incarceration, lack of health insurance, lack of affordable housing, hunger, unemployment, violence - high stress environments devoid of enrichment.
I am a retired school administrator. My NYC public school was a new building and we were for the most part sufficiently funded in terms of books, supplies and furniture. My students came to school and for that part of their day they were in a clean, safe, healthy, stimulating and enriching environment. They received this message from society: you are a learner and a scholar and we believe in you. When I see these photos of broken down, dirty buildings and ancient, ripped textbooks I grieve for those students who have nothing but bleakness, filth and desperation at home AND at school. What message do they receive? You are not a priority in this community. You get the scraps.
Communities must have the will to demand better school funding, the courage to protest until they get it, and the foresight to see where the current path leads. Communities in which education is not a top fiscal priority will send their graduates out into the workforce woefully unprepared.
7
Disgraceful. Disgusting. Depressing. Inexcusable. We are the supposed leader of Democracy? This is how we treat & teach our children? The future leaders of our country are valued so little. Stand with the teachers who are battling on the front line of this shameful situation. Raise taxes, reroute funds, do whatever it takes to make this right.
4
This is an very educational exercise in Public Education.
The course title:
Managing The Fall of a Rotting Empire.
1
Sadly the state legislatures don't value education. We can blame the lack of funds on Congress but the root cause is at the state level.
5
@NYTimes, now please repeat the process for NYC public schools in the poorest neighborhoods of the city. It will make most of the photos in this article look luxurious.
2
I was wondering why Warren was used with a media specialist instead of Detroit Public Schools where I doubt they have a full-time media specialist and are likely to have even fewer books. Might be that the photos would be so bad that people would believe them to be fakes.
2
My daughter taught in an inner-city school in a large urban district for 15 years. She has three master's degrees and six certifications. She had no white children in her middle school. The students adored her. I went to her classroom several times. There WERE NO BOOKS IN HER LIBRARY. I contacted a foundation run by one of the Major League Baseball players at the time, and the people running the foundation thought I was kidding when I told them the library had no books until they visited the school, opened the door and saw the bare shelves. The foundation supplied the library with books. Why SHOULD we have to go to foundations and ask for something as basic as books? Now I read to kids in an inner city elementary school via a program that gathers donated books and gives them to children to bring home. When I give a child a book to take home, one might think I had just given him or her a pot of gold. The teacher with whom I work is a genius, dedicated to her students in a way that would inspire anyone who would observe her. She's creative, loving, yet has rules in her classroom. The kids look up to her.
My daughter's not teaching right now. She's home with two small children. But she's still repaying a plethora of student loans. She THOUGHT she was eligible for loan forgiveness after having taught in the inner city for so long, but someone at the loan agency lost a piece of paperwork she needed, so they rejected her application. Maybe she'll go back, maybe not.
6
Teachers could have more income if they didn't have such HUGE pension plans. Public employees overall compensation levels are ridiculous, there is NO LIMIT TO IT, which actually reduces available money to give to teachers. America's pubic pension plan system is a good example of where liberals are taking us - to bankruptcy, because they HAVE NO PLAN - only "more is better". But there is always a limit to EVERYTHING. The Democrats should rename their party as the "give me everything free" party.
2
Please provide documentation for your assertions.
Regarding the Democratic Party, President Obama led us out of a recession created by President GW Bush and his War. The Republican Party is leading us into a recession caused by a tax plan skewed towards aiding the rich horde more money, designed by Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell. Tax give-aways designed to redistribute income from those who need it the most to those who need it the least. Public school educators are among the group that needs it the most as well as the working poor, poor, and middle classes.
A trillion dollar deficit is projected due to the Ryan/McConnell tax plan. Please see the CBO report at cbo.gov
4
Huge pension plans.....really after 30 years in a profession with multiple certifications, 3 degrees and nothing but stellar evaluations over the last 30 years I will retire with a yearly pension of less than 28,000 dollars a year. I am fully committed to the fact that I will be working yet another full time job after I retire. Explain to me how I am overcompensated!
5
In all our major cities, we should have a half hour TV show consisting of 8 minutes showing a school in a rich district, mostly video taken by the students themselves, 8 minutes showing a school in a poor district made the same way, and 4 minutes in front to discuss the problems, 4 minutes at the end to discuss solution -- and 6 minutes for commercials.
Maybe if the Rich saw how badly they treat the Poor, they can be shamed into paying more taxes.
Harvard has $19,000,000 in endowment funds producing over $2,000,000 in income per enrolled undergraduate, while most of our public universities have NO endowments at all. They receive less than $10,000 in funding per student from their home state.
Wealthy public high schools in the suburbs have resources far greater than inner city high schools. The differences are GREATER than the difference between Harvard and any public university in the South.
Grammar schools in wealthy suburbs spend over $25,000+ per student versus less than $500 a student in very poor suburbs.
By the age of 14, a wealthy suburb of NYC will spend over $250,000+ -- from the state, county, and town -- for each teenager beginning high school; about $160 a day, everyday.
In poor school districts across the USA, in the 9 years from kindergarden to 8th grade, LESS than $10,000 altogether will be spent to educate each child -- less than $5 per child per day.
3
A few years ago, I had teh experience of workinga s a substitute and studnet teaching at two very different school districts in the same county.
One was in an affluent area, while the other was in a lower socioeconomic area.
One district was highly successful - teachers expressed satisfaction with their jobs, test scores were good, schools were safe, cafeterias served real food, prepared that day, libraries were open every day and had books and other materials, computer labs had working computers, special needs of students were rapidly identified and addressed, and about $6.5k a year was spent per student, with just over $4.5k of that reaching the classroom (according to an investigative journalism piece by the county paper).
The other district was failing its students - teachers were stressed and unhappy, test scores were atrocious, schools were dnagerous places, cafeterias served prepackaged processed foods wrapped in plastic that were microwaved for the students, libraries were open only one or two days a week and lacked books and media materials, computer labs were full of new - but already broken - computers, special needs of students were ignored for as long as possible, and were not dealt with very well at all. The district spent over $13k per year per student, with just under $4.5k of that reaching the classroom (according to an investigative journalism piece by the county paper).
Both districts paid teachers a similar amount in salary and benefits.
Many intense items in the new these days, but the comments here from the teachers are heartbreaking.
Let's be honest, most of the general population in the US does not care to fund any level of education. They want students to fund their own education from pre-k to PhD. If masses cared even one iota, they would be calling their elected officials weekly, electing people who would make it a top priority to fix the schools by providing maintenance funding and so on. You cannot just put someone in office then not TELL them how to do the job.
For the people who are shocked by these revelations, I can only say shame on you. Willful ignorance and constituent laziness is how we got here. It would also help if all the people who donate to school in developing nations stop for 3 years and donate to US schools AND be a squeaky wheel in your elected representatives' office.
This has been the worst kept secret for 35 years. US civil and educational infrastructure is 2nd World at best. A well equipped school and teachers would not have to buy textbooks or curriculums. Call your elected officials today and every Wednesday for the next year and tell them to fully fund our schools. Seriously, if you do not, you don't really care.
7
Come on! At least you blue collar workers of today saw the Animal House take off Or were too happily toking at the time.
Remember these riffs?!
"Thank you, sir, may I have another?" That comes from 1978’s "Animal House"
"The film's dialogue has saturated pop culture to such an extent that phrases such as "Assume the position!" and "Thank you, sir, may I have another?" are [still][ tossed around ... to this day
—(quote is thanks to Google).
You wonder why the Republican right were so amazed by the Parkland students. Now we know why.
3
I might be an idiot or naive, but I found that the vast majority of the time, textbooks weren’t necessary, and homework was busy work to help a teacher form a grade...
These days, there are so many resources on the internet one can learn from provided you have a machine and an internet connection. Practically for free!
Maybe we should admit that the education system is glorified babysitting for the benefit of working adults and come up with another model. Heavy on apprenticeships and one on one tutoring for those who seek it.
2
Even if a school is able to provide an iPad or inexpensive computer to each student not all families can afford internet access. Many families live from paycheck to paycheck. There is a lot of erroneous information on the internet, students still need teachers to help them navigate and discern truth from fiction.
Why is funding schools and paying teachers living wages such an issue? It should be a no-brainer that schools and teachers are sufficiently funded and supported.
1
What's new about this reporting!? Third world countries do not have the funds to procure basic resources.............wait..? It's the USA..? lol
#richcountrybutmorallybankrupt
6
I teach in an elementary school. What saddens me most about these photos and others I have seen is the message that dilapidated schools, outdated textbooks, broken equipment, and inadequate supplies send the students - that they, the students, are not important. Education is not important. Neither is a priority of the leaders in their state.
Although my state is following the trend of states that consistently and increasingly underfund education, I live and teach in a university community that values public education and supports its schools, students, and teachers well. I wish all students and school staff in this country were so lucky.
7
On Friday we had a lockdown due to a drive-by shooting right outside our school; some students of mine found bullets on the playground. I had to bring an entire class of kindergarteners into my room because their teacher still doesn't have a key to her door. Needless to say, we didn't get a lot of work done.
Today I had 6 extra kids in my 2/3 combo class because a teacher was out and there was no sub. This happened 3 times last week. Apparently the district doesn't pay enough to attract enough substitutes. Today I had to make sure the third graders practiced for their state test, while trying to keep the 2nd graders and my 6 "guests" occupied and quiet, all while supporting my non-English-speaking newcomer. Meanwhile, the combination of a crowded classroom and stress over the standardized test caused several of my more sensitive students to spin out of control today. And yet the kids will still be expected to do well on the state tests next week. This is what it is like to teach in public schools these days. I'm exhausted.
9
Being in a state with a strong union, we still spend our own money for supplies. However, we have a safety article that we could grieve unsafe conditions. We could demand to consult for textbooks. We elect Site Council members who work on the site budget. Unions make a positive differenxe for teachers and the students they serve.
2
One part of a districts educational budget expense that has historically been an expensive but necessary item yet cost of producing has in reality been reduced to pennies on the dollar yet that savings is not passed on to the school districts are textbooks. The textbook companies (and if you went to college you know the ridiculous price that was charged for required textbooks usually ranged from $150 - $400 per book) in the past cost the companies hundreds of dollars per textbook to create a quality book authored by prominent people in their field of expertise and add fto it the costly materials to manufacture (printed on high quality paper, color pictures, durability) resulting in a cost per text from $150 to $500 plus. Today the textbook companies no longer print textbooks into books but instead have digital versions that cost less than $10 dollars yet they still charge school districts the same as in the past. States should demand these corporations drastically drop the price so it includes a a few dollars profit per text and not $400 dollars profit for each text. Believe me, it will result in a massive savings for every district in the country.
5
There are high quality Open Source textbooks in every subject that are free to use for all. Whilst not a perfect solution, you need a e-reader or computer, or a way to print them, it is an option.
1
America RIP!
3
Betsy DeVos should be forced to read this and to visit every single one of these schools.
9
Of course I believe the government knows exactly what is going on with public education, finances, lack of books and supplies, and the general condition of classrooms across the USA. Their goal is to eliminate public education for the masses. Keep them uneducated and hopeless...and completely controlled. The people with steady higher incomes will send their children to private schools. The new fascism is alive and well.
7
Almost all these states are Red go figure
3
What, that the Times was based in collecting these accounts? I assure you that even the bluest of states have these same situations. In fact every state has many districts with these stories.
In the early 1990s parents were upset when they were given a list of supplies to buy for "their" kids. Now they do not even bat an eye multiple page lists. These lists exist even in the toney districts.
2
You only have to be aware of the huge number of Americans who are science-ignorant, gullible, credulous of fake news, unable to have rational thoughts to recognize that we are a country that skimps on education. There are many arts organizations that foster and award mediocre artists and writers. If some would switch to rewarding teachers it could make a real difference.
3
I am using old dictionaries that are falling apart, have 22 computers for 25 students and partitions instead of walls in a major city!! As a society, we do not care about our kids. We love to say we care, but the plight of public education says otherwise. After 21 years in the public school system, I have never had a population like I have right now. I have more "F"'s than I have ever had and that is a direct reflection of my students' lack of resources at home and then they expect us teachers to make up for that. Honestly, it is laughable to expect us to make up for that.
7
Making America great again starts with education. Not tax breaks for the wealthy or the dissolution of environmental regulations so that companies can provide better value for rich investors. But then, many of these same people love to have a huge under-educated class because that makes them more pliable and easily manipulated with lies and slogans. It is a disgrace. And it will not get any better until the swamp is well and truly drained of all the self-serving so-called "public servants". Voting the current orange monstrosity in was not a good start, America. Please think of your children the next time you cast a ballot. You are their only voice.
4
Thank you for this article.
This is the type of issue that we should be focusing on - not how ridiculous, immoral and stupid our president is. Which he is, but just sayin...
What does it say about the richest nation to have ever existed that it treats it's students and teachers with such disdain? When did "lowering taxes" become a religious experience while we handicap our kids in the global competition? Stupid is as stupid does.
We, as a society, apparently care not for the future of our our nation, our citizens - our children!
I read this piece and felt embarrassment and shame.
4
Hopefully embarrassed and ashamed enough to contact your elected representatives today and every Wednesday for the next year to tell them how YOU want them to fix this local, state, and national disaster. I would also suggest interviewing every prospective political candidate to see how well they listen to their potential bosses, aka constituents.
2
Yes, we must adequately fund education of our public schools but money must also be wisely invested.
My childrens’ three public school all have ‘smart boards’ in every class that no teach asked for or uses. Meanwhile, students get extra credit academically for bringing toilet paper for the public restrooms, paper towels & kleenex. Doesn’t sound very ‘smart’ to me...
4
It is a disgrace and "penny wise but pound foolish" I agree. However, may I point out to you that Geo. Bush, the GOP and the Evangelicals ALL made those drastic cuts to American education - some for money and some for "their god".
...
And the rest of America stood by and let it happen.
3
As a Masters trained teacher who earned a six figure salary in Australia in a pretty standard suburban elementary school, I am horrified at what I have read here. Teachers buying curriculum? Seriously? How is that even allowed? I hope you don't wonder why someone like Trump is voted as President - it's because your education system is so pathetic your own people don't have the basic cognitive skills to understand anything beyond the black and white simplicity of racism, xenophobia and 'me, me, me'. You can't educate anything remotely resembling social responsibility when you don't even have a curriculum to teach it from.
All this, while you spend more than the next eight nations combined on your military.
This is why the world laughs at you.
8
A quotation comes to mind (don’t know source): "Every time you spend money, you're casting a vote for the kind of world you want."
3
I know a few posts say, oh gee this is how it was back in the 70's. Let me tell you what is different.
SUPERINTENDENTS MAKING 250k+ a year with travel expense of 40k..In Michigan, the problems is not that the school is underfunded its that let me repeat it again "THE SUPERINTENDENT MAKES 250K + a year and gets 40K in travel expenses...principals are making over 100k a year and teachers salaries are 95k+ a year..so highly paid the kids and classrooms do not have enough. Teachers deserve 95K a year if it fits how well the kids are taken care of but if you have classrooms crumbling and duck taped books -- teachers prob shouldn't be getting 95k a year.
IT is all BUDGET ISSUES. And how the board delivers the funds.
Then the same school complains its because of the kids not speaking English.
so while the kids have NOTHING..the SUPERINTENDENT gets PAID GAS to travel a 15 mile radius all school year lol.... All the higher ups and education board squander all the MONEY AWAY from the kids and schools. seriously 250K a year? These people are not doctors. And Superintendents and board member's didn't do this 40 years ago.
Main problems with schools is the money is not spent on kids.
7
This is the surest sign that we’re destroying ourselves as a country. Hopefully people will wake up, and it will have to be soon, and realize that serving plutocratic billionaires like Rupert Murdoch, the Kochs and the Mercers is not in theiror the country’s interest.
3
How many "administrators" are there for every teacher and how much are they being paid......to do what??? How much do the administrators collect in pension? My bet, teachers...the only ones who count are the lowest paid.
3
I teach as an ECE in Ontario. I've seen 3-5 year old kids nearly pass out from the heat in classrooms during September. I would have to fill water tables with ice I brought from home to cool them off. The paint is peeling, mice keep dying in our walls and they took away all of our old playground equipment but will not replace it. Children physically assault teachers daily, throwing books at their faces, kicking shins, trying to punch pregnant bellies. Other students have chairs thrown at them, with classes being evacuated on a nearly weekly basis. This is Kindergarten. No money to support the needs of students, no money to support special needs kids, no training for educators who are handed children with disabilities, and principals are unwilling to send students home or help parents make the changes they need to stop raising their children to become little criminals. It's always "well, little johnny doesn't do that at home so I cant do anything about this. " (Well, little johnny also tells me he gets to play shooting games on the ps3 from the time he gets home until he decides to go to bed sooooo...) North American public education systems do not care about children period. I dont make enough to pay back my student loans or to buy groceries for my family every week - but we have people sitting in the board office making $100000 per year or more...
I am ashamed to be in a position where I cannot put my son in private school or home school.
2
School administrators should be paid as much as their teachers. Period.
2
Why does a school need paper dictionaries? Why do they want to buy paper textbooks? It is bad for the environment killing all of those trees. The student could use their own device which you know they already use at home.
1
Yep, those kindergartners with their cellphones can learn to read them instead of with old, nasty books. Sure, middle schoolers living in poverty have the latest tech.
Where do you live that you think every kid has a device? Not in my real world.
6
Millions of web pages and videos of great educational value available for free on the internet. And you want an expensive textbook that's already outdated by the time it is printed. Old nasty books will be gone before the kids graduate from high school. Using a paper dictionary is like using a paper phone book, an unnecessary skill that has been dead for decades. Not being able to search in a book is a joke. For the price of a dictionary you could find a cheap used device. Just put a video of Khan Academy in the class. Welcome to the 21st century.
Respectfully, salary does not account for teachers' retirement pensions. Here in Ohio, I know one teacher who retired in his 40s after 20 years on full pension and works a new job. Another local teacher "retired" at full pension and then got rehired by the school for another salary. I am a firm believer in high quality education with good materials and fair teacher salaries; but the pension issue is a problem. I bet this pension issue is consuming resources.
4
Do you have the same complaint for anyone who has a pension in another field, or is it just teachers?
I taught instrumental music in Raleigh, NC. One classroom was an old bathroom with broken out windows and no heat. Another was a room with no heat down a pitch black hall. In the winter you could see your breath. Another room was a closet, one was the guidance counselor's office and another was the library. As far as salary goes, I made enough to rent a room in someone's home. And like most everyone else, I had to buy many of my classroom supplies.
4
Use Wikipedia on a cheap tablet. The kids get their answers from Wikipedia anyway.
Cross reference this story with the other story in the NYT about how public employee pension obligations are basically devouring state budgets, squeezing out funding for things like education.
4
It may be coincidence, but the two male teachers (who I do not begrudge) are making WAY more than any of the female teachers. Can there be another article looking into that further?
In general, this is just a disgrace. A focus on education helped propel Ireland from the poorest country in Europe to one of the richest. Even if morals don't motivate us, the payoff should.
2
I teach at a middle school in South Carolina, and my story is the same as all the rest.
The building I work in was built in 1958 and is held together by a dedicated staff of custodians. It is clean, but it is old and decrepit. I don't dare open my 60-year-old blinds lest they fall and harm me or a student. I am lucky to have a cranky window A/C unit in my classroom. We don't have A/C in the halls or restrooms. The window in the staff restroom hasn't closed in decades, which makes for interesting interactions with critters and frosty or steamy restroom breaks depending on the season. (It's very humid here.)
We are a Title I school, so we have some computers to share and smart boards. We tend to fight over those computers, which makes planning a challenge.
Sadly, all the supplies are on me except two boxes of paper and $250. I feel lucky to have that, but I have spent almost $650 of my own money on paper, books, cleanser, tissue, hand sanitizer, glue, and writing implements.
As I said, I feel so fortunate to have what I do, but I could serve my students so much better if more money were dedicated to education in this state. We have a county bond election coming up to better fund schools. I certainly hope it passes, but I won't hold my breath. People claim to support education until they have to pay. Little do they realize they are educating the people who will take care of them in their dotage.
Pay for education now or pay for prison and welfare later.
2
Why don't parents in red states stop voting for the people who treat their children like this? I am sorry for these children, but their parents seem to be more worried about a woman in another state having an abortion than about their children's educations.
Wake up.
5
This is disgraceful. That we treat our children and their teachers so badly.how can it be acceptable that our schools have to fund the basics out of teachers’ pockets and gofundme efforts?!!
Vote for school funding and vote for legislators that improve it.
3
Welcome to red state Republican Party support for public education. As Spiro Agnew once said, “The last thing this country needs is an educated Proletariat.
6
After teaching full time for eight years, I found out that teaching was a nice hobby but you can't raise a family on it. So I went to industry.
2
The situation is not good and the schools need more money and maybe in some places, like NY, the senior teachers are paid too much for too little work, but the kids still have opportunities that they can take advantage of and to blame their failure on the funding is just making excuses.
I graduated from a top NYC public high school in 1983 and because we had a high graduation rate and a high college rate, we were always at the bottom when it came to funding. In chemistry, our Bunsen burners had been manufactured in 1917. In English, our textbooks were from the 1930s and held together with masking tape. My American history textbook's final paragraph mentioned how if America keeps advancing that the rate it is going, someday, perhaps during our lifetimes, we might put a man on the moon.
95%+ of the students did well and went on to college - because of our families and ourselves.
2
ALEC won. America lost. We knew this was their agenda years ago.
6
I attended public school in California from 1953 through 1970. In elementary and middle school we had art, science, and language instruction. From sixth grade on there was sports. Community college? No tuition. State college? No tuition. The University of California? No tuition (until Reagan came along). This is what built Silicon Valley. And Silicon Valley pioneered the tech boom.
Just as with decaying roadways, railroads, and other infrastructure - the United States is living off past accomplishments and the corporate vampires, indulged by Democrats and openly feted by the GOP, are now down to draining the last drops of blood. And what do they care? The sons and daughters of the rich attend private school.
I guarantee you - they are not using 25-year-old textbooks in China, or Finland, or Germany. However, if you keep people in a state of functional illiteracy, maybe significant numbers will continue to fall for the lie that coal and steel are coming back or that DJT is going to make America "great again".
They certainly won't be able to follow the news through critical reading and that can only benefit the likes of FOX News and their crew of ignorant talking heads. How pathetic! Lying, deception, and self-delusion have now become the national pastime.
8
It's a disgrace. Republicans fund the already-bloated military and lean on the worn-out "every life is precious" excuse for denying reproductive rights for women, only to ignore those precious lives after they're born. No wonder the U.S. is falling behind the rest of the world when we can't even educate our children and pay our educators a decent wage.
4
The head of the EPA built a $43,000 soundproof booth in his office to facilitate his own corruption, perjury and possible treason. If our children receive no education and live their lives in ignorance, elaborate deceptions like Pruitt's will become much simpler and less expensive to achieve.
3
if Americans really cared about education it would have never got this bad, and if Republicans get their way it will get even worse as they continue to cut funding. Endless amounts of dollars go towards the military budget and if you even question it you are unpatriotic. Nobody really cares and that is the honest truth.
3
I'm glad an article like this is hitting the masses. It is something that needs more attention. I am the husband of a Teacher who has been in the field for 10 years now and it's a shame what has happened to the education system in just a short amount of time. No funds for school supplies and decent buildings that are up to code to be taught in are just a tip of the Iceberg. What lies beneath in most places involves that of a decaying system that ensures nothing but failure for the future of our country. I hope this is a step in the right direction for the future in education with children and young adults across this Country. I would go on into greater detail, but it's just too much to talk about in a comment section on a post for an article on The New York Times site.
1
I agree that schools are underfunded and teachers are underpaid, but some of these locations are just mismanagement issues of funding. How do you go so long that the text books are that outdated? How do you live in an area like Tempe, Az (which is right down the road from 2 major semiconductor manufactures and not ask for help from either the families that live there or the companies direct, both would love tax right offs. Oh, and that keyboard is about $26 on amazon and takes 15 min. to replace https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2_dHIXLgj4. The OK school is because of the influx of oil jobs, get over it, tax money is coming. The RI school, really with the steam boilers with some of the highest tax rates in the country? And then you have the CO school with the temporary facility gone permanent, with all that extra income of marijuana from a prominent area such as Aurora, this shouldn't be an issue. A lot of my neighbors are teachers and nurses and they are probably the most underpaid workers out there, but these issues that are being displayed in this article are mismanagement of either time or money or both and no one cares to really look and the real problems that are behind all of this.
2
Another commenter mentioned Arizona allows taxpayers to redirect tax dollars from public schools to private schools. That’s a problem.
2
The story is so infuriating, because it’s not how I want our country to be. My two children attend public school in a high-achieving Boston suburb with talented teachers and great leadership. But they have no air conditioning. The building is literally crumbling (a section is cordoned off where the concrete trim falls onto a patio). They are so lucky to have what they need to learn and they have gratitude for all that is there. But when I look at what we worked so hard to find for them, I wonder, how can this really represent what we want for America’s future? And don’t get me started on unsafe gun laws threatening their very existence. We need change.
4
It should be no surprise, based on the information in this article, why American students are so far down the list when it comes to a comparison with their peers in other countries.
We have a culture in decline and the blowhards in State, Federal, and local government are conmen lining their own pockets or just plain fools or most typically, both.
This is obviously not just the result of Donald Trump and/or Betsy DeVos. 25 year-old textbooks have been used over a period of time that includes both Democratic and Republican administrations.
We have drones that take off from airbases (or carrier strike groups) around the globe. They are controlled by the most sophisticated technology that money can buy. And they can vaporize almost random groups of people with few or no repercussions.
At the same time increasing sections of the American population are functionally illiterate and could not point out on a world map where Yemen, Afghanistan, Somalia, let alone Kyrgyzstan, are located.
What passes for national defense and education are both shameful and pathetic. And - for those still suffering the illusions - coal and steel are not coming back nor is DJT going to make America great again.
However, the worse the educational system becomes the harder it will be for people to figure that out and the easier it is to maintain the charade. That means that, just as it was in the antebellum South, there's a powerful incentive to keep people poor, ignorant, and divided.
4
Hey, who needs a real education where you're only practical future is as a corporate office worker? The corporate takeover of America is complete: only third-rate minds are needed. Don't believe me? Just look at the want ads: you need a four-year degree to be considered as an "administrative assistant (i.e., a secretary).
2
how about sending the generals to a bake sale. and have them purchase the amunition for their soldiers and not being reimbursed. and then we hold them accountable for their soldiers getting PTSD. oh yes, and pay them a pittance and cut their retirement.
5
Some solutions that will never happen:
1. Give all teachers a living wage.
2. Direct some of the pentagon billions to schools.
3. Parents: stop having three, four, five children, and then complain about school bonds. And just have one kid.
4. In Japan, kids clean the schools (no vandalism); kids prepare simple yet nutritious ous meals, serve the meals and clean up. (no obesity); kids take homework home and study hard (no dropouts); gun sales and ownership tightly controlled (no mass shooting in schools). I guess we can't be as smart as the Japanese.
5. Fire Betsy DeVoss today.
6. If a kid brings cell phone to school, destroy it.
4
DonorsChoose.org. showing what We The People can do better than an incompetent Federal Government that has no business being in our schools.
Imagine if we all had an open choice. Minnesota is half way there being an open enrollment state for WELL over a decade. Inner city schools have a 30 million dollar deficit. Now that's a lot of money and I firmly ask. Where did it all go?
Before a student receives any benefit of tax dollars alot of that dollar disappears to Bureaucrats, Admintrative and Teachers Unions. Before the Teacher or child see any of it that that is quite concerning.
Point is simply throwing more money at something this defunct and dysfunctional will not solve our current issue as with most thing from our oversized and bloated government.
2
This is reprehensible. If MEN dominated the teaching field, there is no way things would be this bad. But because it's dominated by women, well, it can't really be all that important, can it? And the entire nation suffers.
3
Notice that two of the three men profiled earn roughly double the salaries of the women.
5
I would suggest that we try to get some foreign aid to help our schools but it would only be siphoned off by our corrupt government to buy more weapons and reward fat cat political donors.
We are doomed. The slaughter of our children does not bring meaningful gun restrictions; the third world condition of our schools does not bring meaningful education expenditures.
Their is a major political party, with consistent support of about 40% of our population no matter what it does, that cares almost nothing about the well-being of the citizens, the future of society or the moral fiber of the country. About 40% of Americans do not vote at all.
We are as close to eating our young as we can be without literally physically consuming them.
The US is beyond being a laughing stock of the world; we have crossed over to being pitiable.
4
One of the two men earned $91000; the other man earned a little over $100,000. I don't recall any woman earning more than mid $50k. Wow!
If you want decent pay, benefits, books, etc, VOTE for a Democrat (most independents would support your cause but they rarely win). If you are voting for Republicans, then you only have yourself to blame. Here in FL, the Republicans have voted to give taxpayer dollars to charter schools. Republicans never support public education. So if you want more $$$$ for teachers and classrooms, don't vote for any Republicans.
6
That is just not true. Men and women are paid according to a pay scale. I'm a teacher. You're just jumping to conclusions based on what you want to believe. There are so many other problems, but illegal sexism isn't one of them. Also, this has *nothing* to do with Republicans. Dems have been just as bad. Obama was horrible for teachers (I voted for him, but he was horrible).
3
Teacher's salaries are based on level of education attained (Bachelors/Masters/Doctorate) and the number of years teaching. Both males and females who have the same degree and same number of years experience get the exact same pay. So the idea of unequal pay between a man and a woman with same level of education and years experience is not based on facts. Teaching salaries across the nation are required to be public knowledge and can easily be obtained by anyone. Check your facts before you make statements to push your agenda of unequal pay between genders.
5
It had nothing to do with gender; teachers are unionized and there can be NO special benefits due to gender. The difference is GEOGRAPHIC and about the power of the union in those districts. Michigan is poor, but heavily union so the pay is very high. Boston is very expensive, heavily union and hard left liberal...so the pay is very high. The lower paid teachers all live in low cost rural areas.
BTW: charter schools ARE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. They are not private schools.
2
This has been the plan for at least 2 decades. Localized so no one paid any attention. Betsy DeVos is the person now hammering the last nail into the coffin of public education. From the article I noticed these are all Republican states. Go figure. No surprise there. Even if all the teachers stand up and strike a shipload of damage has already been done. There is a generation or two of sadly undereducated people roaming this country. They are the angry, forgotten trump voters. What is sad is that they basically did this to themselves by electing Republicans year after year after year.
4
This is awful! I have 3 kids in public elementary school and I can't say our experience has been anything like this. There is endless fundraising, and I do spend $75-$100 at the beginning of each school year per kid for supplies which are pooled among the student body for that class/grade. I know schools are short on lots of things, but this is just ridiculous. I am happy to send a gift card for art supplies to the teacher in TN and one for books to the teacher in Detroit to help out. I can't help with big ticket items or school repairs. I feel for these teachers. Both my parents taught, but have been retired 20+ years. Please contact me and let me know where I could send a couple gift cards. Thanks!
3
Based on the mentality of about 40% of the population these days, I'd guess the textbooks were 250 years old.
1
In NYC, each student costs $20,000 a year. Assuming that a student going through the k-12 mandated regimen successfully: that's 13 years @ 20K=$260,000 to hand them to a NYC H.S. diploma.
The graduation rate is at best 65-70%. Adjusting
for the disgraceful disparity between Black&Brown
students & non-Black&Brown students, and the horrendous fact that almost 40% of those diligent Black & Brown graduates, if they can grittily muster
the inclination and ability to attend College, they must then have to take REMEDIAL COURSES so that they can manage to negotiate community or 4 yr college level courses.
So, in modest proposal tongue-in-cheek, perhaps, for "minority" students in the most segregated Urban School System, i.e., NYC, where they are the 80% majority of the total enrollment, why not just give each such student 200k in a trust account, accessible when they reach 17, and firing 40,OOO of the rather well-paid 80,OOO UFT teachers --as be a radically worthwhile new Educational Initiative.
Just the sad musing of a former nyc teacher.
3
The national average spent on each child is about $21K to $22K. In costly NYC, it is closer to $24K. Yet the liberals here scream "it's not enough!"
1
I am saddened and appalled by this article. These are conditions found in other countries, not the U.S. I remember the first time I heard about teachers having to provide supplies or the parents had to pay for school supplies. This was in another country many years ago.
I grew up in a pretty affluent town, but it was astonishing to learn that the wealthy districts got the buildings and supplies, new books, etc. while the poorer neighborhood schools didn't get building repairs/maintenance or good books.
So it isn't just rich versus poor states or towns. It is class or race or some other determinant that creates these terribly unequal conditions, even within the same town. Money talks in America, along with being white, for example. This nation once chose excellent public education so we would have an informed citizenry. We now see the result of national ignorance. Bad for democracy and bad for our economy and our future.
1
I am inspired that the teachers are marching. I have talked to several retired teachers who said they also had done many of same things that these dedicated professionals do.
I went to a one room country school and I know physical conditions weren't great. This was after the Great Depression and Dust Bowl and during WW II. The heat was from a single stove and AC was six open windows. But I did have some new books and plenty of paper for art projects. (I don't think the teachers purchased any of the supplies.) It was where I found out I could draw and paint and established my love for books and writing. Some of my teachers were really good, a few not so. They had a double whammy of having to teach all grades one thru eight. I learned a lot by observing the older students reciting their lessons. It was a wonderful experience and I went on to establish a great career.
We live in a wealthy country with many opportunities. Our technological strides have been phenomenal. I don't think there are any excuses now that our Federal and State Governments in this country can't come through for our children. Anyone who isn't willing to pay taxes to support our schools needs to be deported, since they're not contributing to the success of our country and are a detriment to our future. I believe they are called "takers".
2
A number of people are blaming the federal government for the lack of funding of our public school, but a large part of the blame needs to be placed more locally. It is at the state and local level that schools are funded and resources allocated. In many states property taxes primarily fund schools with rich areas getting better school, and schools that have harder students to educated - (coming from food insecure household, non English learners, and those with medical problems) are the ones with the least amount of funds. Do you want better funded schools? - pay attention to who is your state rep and who is on your local school board. and VOTE!!!
2
This is not new. In 1975, when I was in an upstate NY High School, my social studies textbook was copyrighted 1959. I had to petition my guidance counselor to overrule a failing grade in a "fill-in-the-map" test because I filled in the names of the south-east Asia countries that actually existed at the time of the test. Forgive me for knowing better! Later, a Brazilian friend of mine in college said "What amazes me most about Americans is their complete and utter inability to view any issue from a frame of reference other than - "What it means to the U.S.A." Such is the complete and utter failure of the U.S. education system. Trump's "America First" mindset props up the notion that is an acceptable world view, and it is one that may doom the U.S. of A in every way shape and form.
2
I think that funneling lots of resources into charter schools has hurt mainstream public education.
4
I think it's important to give some idea of the average cost of living along with these salaries. It would put the information in context. I wouldn't expect a teacher in Rio Rico to make what a teacher in Boston makes. But then the cost of living in Boston is higher.
As to the old textbooks, maybe it's better than having brand-new, revisionist textbooks full of politically manipulated information, especially in the sciences and history.
That said, the state of education in this country continues to appall me, although I can't understand where all the money has gone. Military? entitlement programs? Wherever it's gone, it's surely been wasted
1
The situation depends on where you live. In Northern Virginia, K12 expenditures are around 12K and the schools my children attend are clean & attractive, teachers are kind and competent, and student performance is good. For decades the State was run conservatively, and the state constitution does not allow the sort of mischief that occurred in some other states, such as New Jersey.
2
I have taught first language English in Boston and Dublin and English as a second language in France, Germany, Poland, Spain and Québec for forty-five years. I do not hesitate to say that of these seven different countries the education system in the USA is the worst that I have seen. The violence in American schools has no equivalence anywhere else. But it is the general disdain for learning and erudition that I find most discouraging. When I taught in Poland, my students stood up to greet me. In America being a teacher is far from being considered as anything special. Now Americans have chosen a man who is proud that he never reads anything to be their president. Canada’s neighbour has become a frightening place.
2
For 8 years -- until last year! -- the President was Barack Hussein Obama, yet the US educational system was identical to today. Trump has not changed anything in 15 months! So did you also hate on Obama?
1
America has made its priorities known: more wealth for the wealthy, less funding for schools.
1
For many years I volunteered in classrooms teaching elementary students to write - using computers.
Circa 1984 I'd introduce myself by saying, "We don't have enough paper and pencils, so we'll have to use the Apple II computer the PTA bought."
Everyone, especially the teachers and principal, laughed because it was true! The school would run out of paper in the first semester. It's still true today.
The teachers were afraid to use the computers because historically if it broke they'd wait 10 years to get a new one, so they didn't want to build their lesson plans around them. So I challenged them to push every button to make smoke come out. If it smoked, I'd get them a new one. It never smoked.
Today, there will be billions spent on "school security" in response to Parkland, et al. It's like the Military Industrial Complex. There are massive profits in these new gadgets to address fear that don't improve education.
My greatest fear is that we are demonstrably a nation that literally doesn't care about education. We prove it every day when students walk into our decrepit schools, the way we treat people who have a desire to learn, the way an entire political party denigrates teachers and higher education, and the way we have allowed profits to steal money from school budgets.
Our global competitors, especially China, know that education is the key to the future. They're winning and most Americans are too ignorant to comprehend.
3
It’s a shame what we pay teachers. We spend money on what we value the most—the military and big corporations.
3
Books not bombs.
This is a much wiser (and cheaper) investment that seems to elude our conservative war hawks. I often wonder how any educated Republican - who soooooo values our nation’s early history, the Constitution and its wisdom and sophistication - could possibly not understand that it was our highly educated founders and their innovative thinking and philosophy that set America on a path towards greatness.
2
In addition to so many teachers paying out ot their own, often woefully indadequate pockets, for supplies and materials needed to do their job, thanks to the new. "awesome" tax plan, no amount spent is tax deductible, no matter how much it may be. And in addition, here in Florida we were just handed another unfunded state mandate that every public school must have an armed officer on campus by the beginning of the new school year. This new mandate will cost school districts across the state millions, once again forcing hard choices to be made. Most of these new "employees" will make more than classroom teachers with up to seven years of experience. The Republican agenda has been to decimate and defund public schools, shifitng monies to for profit charters and private school vouchers. The public can now see up close how well their plan is working.
2
As a fellow teacher, I long ago learned that politicians care little for education, just for corporate dollars to fund their campaigns. We are a wealthy country, so wealthy that our lovely congress and president recently gave the largest tax cut in recent history to the wealthy, not to the working classes. How about abandon that tax cut and put some money in education? When I think about how much my teachers created a world at large for me to explore and learn about and see what education has turned into these past twenty years, it makes me realize that changes, big changes are needed in this country. We need a social revolution where education matters again. But, if people don't vote to make changes, nothing will happen, and that means vote these people out of Washington and the states legislatures who continually cut the financial throat of education.
1
The Federal Government shouldn't be funding our public education systems anyway. They should be funded locally. States should compete against each other for having the highest educated public students, not be all made the same by some overarching federal policy which they all must adhere to for funding. Take less of our federal income taxes, and give that chunk back to the State and local governments for education. They will spend it better, and if one state wants to have the Ten Commandments in a class, and their neighbor does not, so be it. It will all be local for what fits that community.
Anyone surprised? If a society is unwilling to tax and spend on its most valuable resource- our young- what do you expect?
States bragging about low taxes while their citizens' children are neglected in a world calling for better schools with adequate resources for the 21st century. Crocodile tears about their inability to raise taxes and money from their citizens. Just maybe it is time to think federalism needs drastic reform. Without money educators and the tools they need are failing. The sad pictures and comments say it all. Wake up, America.
2
Teachers have never been paid what they are worth, and around the greater Detroit area, not only do they not get paid what they are worth, but they have overcrowded classes from lack of teachers.
If our teachers, our equipment (laptops, books and the like) and our school buildings are not taken care of. How can the teachers show the students that education is important.
I would like to clear something up though. The teachers in Warren Michigan do not make $94,000 a year, I believe that is a typo.
Pretty one-sided story, but fits the agenda.
In GA the school taxes are collected at the state level and distributed. Kids in ATL get the most as they are the most in need. Every year they get new tablets, and the next year 40% have to be replaced as they go missing.
The schools across the state have been removing books from the library and classroom in favor of e-learning/reading; most books are stockpiled in a central location, but will be destroyed within a few years. The teachers told me this, not the local paper. They lament the loss of books, but young teachers do not. Another age-gap perception of policies to embrace.
The pictures and stories here are a small subset of the total which is much different from the stories told here. Until we get some objectivity, articles like this should at least be annotated; the title is an outright lie. This doesn't represent 'Inside America's Public Schools.'
And if you want to complain about teacher pay, please do a thorough job - most make pretty good pay given their pension and benefits plan, which hardly anyone gets anymore. And many still walk away with 80% or more for life after 3-5 years of working 9 months out of the year.
There are many professions that don't make you rich; many of us live paycheck to paycheck depending on circumstances. The biggest issue, as I see it, isn't pay - it's the real inflation rate and the travesty that is home pricing and affordable housing.
1
Yeah, am a student out in a very wealthy area, outside of Atlanta. The north side of Fulton, in Sandy Springs, and yet I am still literally welding circa 1965 desks back together, before school starts. However, the books are all reasonably new, and we get issued surface tablets each year. So I would say that they are obviously choosing to invest in some areas, and from where I am looking at the situation it seems like the correct way to spend what money they have.
How can the U.S. remain a world leader when its citizens and workers have such a training/education deficit compared to other wealthy economies?
1
An under-educated work force can not meet the needs of a high tech industrial society. There will be no economic boom in this country.
1
All I can say is VOTE. Pay attention to the priorities of candidates for local, state, and federal offices.
If candidates support siphoning money away from the public education system to charter and private schools then they are undermining the public system.
Also vote out of office those on public school boards who collude to overcompensate executive administrators at the expense of your district's students and teachers.
2
I'm angry, but I'm more angry at the state government than anyone else. The public education system here in Ca. is a discrace. The state lotto was supposed to go to school funding. Funding is cut. Voter tax initiatives are supposed to go to school funding, Funding is cut. The funding generated and designated to go to the schools here in this state are routinely misappropriated and diverted to other uses.
1
I went to grade school in Calverton NY in 1955. It had five rooms and five teachers, one janitor. One of the teachers was a principal. It is now the Riverhead Charter School. Same building. Fewer students. It has a staff of 64 persons listed on its web site.
I have a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. One of my classmates (Alan Horn) was the head of Disney. Others did similar things with their lives. I think most people knows where this thread is going.
1
Thank you to all the teachers who shared their experiences for this piece. My mother was a public school teacher, and while I always knew our education system was underfunded, I did not appreciate the extent. A solid educational system and educated workforce is being globally competitive. By under funding our educational system, we our ceding our future prosperity to other countries. The economic future is in information, engineer, science. Without solid education, how are we to compete globally in the economy.
I also echo the comments of other readers on "donations. Its pathetic and tragic that we close the gap on providing basic resources to students through "donations" rather than our fed and state governments providing adequate resources. But there is plenty of money to throw at military spending on new toys to use in these never ending overseas wars.
I'm at a loss to know why computers and textbooks are the responsibility of the school in the first place. Elsewhere parents stump up the cost.
1
The schools should pay for computers and text books because many families would not be able to afford them. A “free and appropriate public education” includes basic supplies like books
3
Of course this is the end result of government regulation of education. The more regulation the worse the outcomes. And of course it fails. It always will. That people are asked to donate is more evidence not that government won't take care of schools but that it *can't* take care of schools. It isn't like the US is short shifting schools. We spend the most in the world on education! https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-education-spending-tops-global-list-stud...
It simply doesn't work. Hogwon -Korean private school- teachers make far more than public school teachers. They've produced at least one millionaire. Most schools in the world even in the most poor of countries are private schools. Why? Because they pay more and function better.
A good example: Buying textbooks is a terrible idea. They're limited, bulky, often riddled with errors, and expensive. And you need 6-7 of these giant texts per student. Or you could take your money and buy a $50 tablet from Amazon, get most of what would be in English and History texts for free, and access a load of cheap to free programs online designed to help teach everything from math and science to art. Even the loss of a tablet is cheaper than the loss of a textbook.
You want to make schools better? Cut the cord with the government. Within two years you'll find more people going to better schools. Even the poor schools would be better than what they are under government management.
1
I don't see any problem with "25-Year-Old Textbooks".
3
Except for the fact that those are history books and that the geographical lines around the globe have changed, and that most of the technology we have today didn’t exist then. And everything that drives the ENTIRE global economy is different than it was when the data gathered for those books was collected 30 years ago?
So that makes us on par with the cast-offs given to third world countries?!?
I was lucky enough to have had that text book when it was new..
1
This article is infuriating. We can afford to throw away millions of dollars on firing missles at a country that is no threat to us (Syria), but we cannot fund the classrooms and teachers where our children, the next generation, who should be the pride of our nation, are taught. Our country's priorities are totally out of whack. This must change.
5
So what's the point of the article beyond the plight of these teachers? I get it, they want more money but from whom? Their towns, their State?? Also, are the salary figures quoted for the 10 months that they actually work? Pretty poorly constructed piece in my opinion.
1
how arrogant. teachers usually work way now than 8 hours a day, during"vacation doing training, pay for class supplies AND furniture and make little money. I know, my wife is a teacher. so come off your high horse and cough up your money.
4
Appalling ...,, In 1966 I taught second grade in inner city Baltimore where we had zero math texts, 20 year old spelling books, and 15 year old readers. I had 38 children in my class, of whom three had failed two grade levels. We threatened to strike that Spring, not about teacher pay, but about lack of funding for materials needed to teach. Despite the district’s short comings, there was some superb teaching going on in that building. But these children and their teachers deserved more. It is a crying shame that fifty years later little has changed.
4
So sad. Our values of greed and war are reflected in the way we govern and spend.
7
A timely article on one aspect of the appalling state of affairs prevalent in our national public schools. However, as a classroom educator who taught Spanish and the geography of Latin America from Pre-K all the way up to the collegiate level, a question begs: When shall we US citizens halt this old practice of referring to our nation as "America"? America is a continent divided by three. It is not one country. We gain our independence from the United Kingdom, hence our name, United States. Besides; Amerigo Vespucci in honor of who America the continent is named, was Italian.
While they show you dilapidated buildings and obsolete textbooks, have you checked out the football stadiums at some of these schools? We have astro turfed fields with state of the art everything that would be the envy of many a bygone Roman Emperor. When asked about the cost of those facilities we always hear they are paid for by the "Booster Clubs" or ticket sales. No, they are paid for by the communities where they are located and shortchanging the educational portion of school attendance. We should emphasize nurturing brains not destroying them. What are your priorities America?
4
Shame on us. If this is what we do to prepare our future citizens then, as the saying goes, you get what you pay for. Not always, but this reflects an insidious and all too predictable phenomena under GOP control. Trillions of dollars wasted on the fiascos in Afghanistan and Iraq - just think of the programs and equipment that could have poured into these PUBLIC schools, are you listening Ms. DeVos?
3
Yes, and I think we are seeing the results of "get what you pay for" right now. Forty percent of our populace can't even tell the difference between "reality t.v." and reality. They can't make appropriate decisions about their leaders because they are incapable of distinguishing between biased and purposely misleading media.
I grew up in a military dictatorship (although I am a U.S. born citizen). I know that a democracy cannot be sustained with uneducated citizenry. I am also a professor at a Community College who knows we are sorely letting out youth down in every way imaginable.
3
I don't even need to read this. It's a disgrace, and infuriating. The US has plenty of funds when it comes to its 'priorities', but clearly education is not one of those priorities.
I am sickened each time I hear of 'donations' being asked for, for school supplies for a local teacher, or bookbags for poor students, etc. I am sickened each time I hear of students and/or their parents canvassing the neighborhood, the parents' office colleagues, to buy 'stuff' the kids/school are selling, all to raise money. I am sickened to hear of 'bake sales', again, to help our schools get by with everyday needs.
In fact, I'd like to see people STOP making such donations to schools, for so long as we taxpayers pick up the slack, where our own government will not, well then.... they are just going to sit back and think 'well, the people will make up the difference' or 'well, the people don't seem mad enough...see them all running around baking their muffins, and having drives to collect unused backpacks for local students?'
Just like the current gun control issue, it's time for more anger from the general populace. For far too long, we have been complacent, as one area after another, has fallen by our own government's wayside. Where is the outrage?
121
We need a revolution...
6
Hear, hear, to both Jenifer and Lisa.
Wow. I bought five laptops during a Christmas sale the year before last to donate to a school in Nicaragua- they only had five computers and were sharing like four kids per computer. I had no idea that American schools were as bad off as the ones in Nicaragua. It honestly never occurred to me. It definitely didn't occur to me that some teachers literally build their own desks. This is awful.
122
The third world can sometimes be found right in your backyard.
1
Perhaps some of the 1% should dip into their wallets to help these schools. My mother was a NYC school teacher for 20 years. Luckily, she was union. But she often laud out her own money for classroom supplies. She also talked about the condition of the school building itself.
NYT - have you reached out to Ms. Devos for comment? Has any spoken to health authorities about unsafe conditions in the schools.
Unfortunately, I don’t expect much to change on this. Once again, politicians would rather continue the dumbing down of America. An educated public is their enemy.
3
This article focuses on veteran teachers. Their students certainly deserve more funding, but I don't think $45k/yr with benefits and summers free is a bad deal. Their lives would be much improved if class sizes were cut in half, which can only be accomplished if compensation stays put.
The bigger problems is with new teacher retention. If you want to document difficulty, do an article on their lives (with statistics on new teacher survival rates).
2
Retention rates are bad because benefits are not great. Should an office worker making 25K to 45K per year pay for his/her pens, paper, ink cartridges, etc?
Also, this argument that "summers off" makes up for it somehow is ridiculous. First, that is actually more of a knock on how lousy paid vacations are in America. In other first world countries, you don't have to be a teacher to get 4 to 6 weeks off a year. Other cultures understand that there is life outside of work and they recognize the mental health benefits of time off.
Retention rates are bad because the gig is bad all around, including lousy pay. Summer breaks don't nullify legitimate complaints. Compensation doesn't need to "stay put", the US needs to put more dollars into education. Sure, find a better and smarter way to make it work. But schools need money, teachers need to be compensated fairly.
4
Sam: teachers do not get "4-6 weeks a year" vacation!!! They get FOURTEEN WEEKS paid vacation every year from Year One. Nobody even in Sweden or Denmark gets 14 weeks paid vacation. Plus this much time off does incalculable harm to "at risk" students who forget what they learned in such a long break.
I went to public school in Westchester County, New York, during the Cold War, when this nation paid taxes under the 1942 and 1954 revisions to the Internal Revenue Code (which enabled us to win the War and build the peace). Under the National Defense Act during the Eisenhower administration, science education was funded.
This community grew in the 1950s, and realized the need for schools to build the future. From one school down the street, built in 1912 and expanded in 1925, we built a new elementary school in the early 1950s and purchased land from the neighboring town to build our high school in 1958, and later expanded it.
We had a great library, science labs, and good textbooks. We were building for the future.
Now we are eating the future for political expedience.
I got a far better education than my grandson does in his fancy-dancy Manhattan private school, where a sense of entitlement is the subtext.
3
I went to a well-funded elementary school in the SF Bay Area. I didn't realize this until my family moved and I went to a less-than-fortunate school for the sixth grade. I wondered why all the library books were so old, why we didn't have library days like I did at my old school, why there wasn't a fully furnished computer lab. Tears welled up in my eyes when I saw the 37 books Elliot Glaser was able to purchase with $500. It wasn't _that_ bad at my new school-- I griped as an 11 year old but it was never that bad. Our shelves were still full, the library was still relevant, I still borrowed books regularly and it helped foster an active imagination.
Shame on our policymakers. Shame on those who are stifling the growth of an entire generation.
2
I'm currently teaching English in the Mongolian countryside. After reading this article, I'm shocked that America's public schools are in the same condition as my school here in rural Mongolia.
How can the US claim to be the "greatest nation on Earth" when so many of our children have to study under these conditions? We want to model values to the rest of the world, yet we don't value education enough to make our schools, students, and teachers a priority.
I think about my students in Mongolia, and I think about all of the ideas they have about the United States. I'd be so embarrassed to show them these photos, because I think they reveal how little our society actually cares about our own students.
2
While I agree that the general state of our public education system needs improvement - and that taking away funding for "vouchers" to give to private schools is heinous treatment of our public education system (read that "open to any and all") - you do a disservice by reporting yearly salaries that are based on the school year. Instead, those salaries should be reported as a monthly amount. The other option would be to divide the salary by the amount of a year school is in session, i.e., $48,000 for a full ten month year is equivalent of $4,800 per month - a yearly rate of $57,600. A nine month year would be $64,000. Then also realize that many public school teachers pay no social security tax on their income because their pension plans make them exempt (they don't receive SS either unless they pay into it from another job).
And I have heard all of the arguments about having to teach summer school (for extra pay), coach a sports team (for extra pay); or take summer school to get more degrees, but how many jobs are allowed 2-3 months off every year to pursue those added degrees?
There is also the pension plan that most other public employees agree is worth the reduction in pay. Don't base your pension anger on the few who game the system (as NYT did in a recent article) but instead on the average pension received.
Teacher pay is but one item. As you point out, facilities and materials have not been maintained.
3
Chris: a better metric is to calculate pay on "per hour worked". Since teachers get time off, vacations, etc. that nobody else in society gets.....they have the shortest work day, week and year of any profession. (Yet whinge the most.) What is the value of time off - to be with family, take graduate classes or just loaf? Calculated by "per hour worked"....teachers earn MORE than nurses, librarians, physicists, optometrists, engineers and many other college-degreed professions with a higher bar to entry and more rigorous study. SOURCE: Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2007.
1
I think The Times should be careful about publishing teacher’s salaries. When readers are just looking at the salary and not thinking about cost of living of the different location, then it can be misleading. I suggest the Times make a note about cost of living as it relates to the area the teacher is working. Unfortunately, most readers are going to just look at the salary that some make and not have a reference point to really what that means in that teacher’s community. Teachers are underpaid. Most have second jobs and most do pay out of pocket for supplies.
85
I think Everyone's Salaries should Be FULLY disclosed all the way up to the top... Its public FUNDS. Not private. IF tax payers are paying for your salaries then we have a right to know how its working. In fact when people got wind of the Higher ups getting so much more, they started to Hide the salaries..wonder why?
3
Teachers salaries are public information. Anyone can get this information in any community. They are public employees.
3
Yes, teachers' salaries are public record. But someone making $110,000 in Boston is equivalent to someone making $69,000 in Columbus, OH. Making that transparent would be a good thing.
But we also shouldn't lose track of the larger point. In what other industry would a person with three degrees and 20 years of experience only be making $44,000? This is absurd and disgusting.
2
I’d like to see a follow up article about how much we spend compared to other countries, the quality of the education received, and where all the money is going.
I read an OEDC study that reported that the US is 7th in the world in terms of spending on education, yet we rank something like 36th in quality of education. Teachers are striking because they feel grossly underpaid. Where’s the disconnect?
'Total expenditures for public elementary and secondary schools in the United States in 2013–14 amounted to $634 billion, or $12,509 per public school student enrolled in the fall (in constant 2015–16 dollars).'
And we know with baseline budgeting we are only spending more today.
https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=66
So where is the money going?
Teachers are underpaid, they claim they are buying supplies for the students even though I know that MILLIONS of parents get lists of supplies to buy at the start of the school year and MILLIONS of parents get those supplies.
The books are falling apart.
The buildings are a wreck.
State and local bureaucracies, THAT is where the money is being wasted and it results in the test scores we see today.
2
All this reflects true American values. These show up in quips like "I'm not a rocket scientist but...", and "Those who can do; those who can't teach". School is viewed as extended babysitting. The anti-intellectualism is this country is shown in the Pulitzer Prize-winning book "Anti-intellectualism in American Life" It was published in 1964. That these attitudes now prevail even in the White House indicates things are much worse now.
3
It is a national travesty how under-appreciated public school teachers are.
It is a national travesty how underpaid public school teachers are.
It is a national travesty how underfunded public schools are.
It is a national travesty that Betsy DeVos is Secretary of Education. A woman who wants to further devalue public schools, public school teachers, and public education by shifting resources to for-profit schools. For-profits that she, her family, and friends benefit from financially.
A free Public School Education should be mandated by law.
A free Public School Education should be mandated by law.
A free Public School Education should be mandated by law.
If we as a nation want our children to be the leaders of tomorrow on National and World affairs, we must provide a solid publicly funded education. Every child should have an equal chance.
Every American child should receive the same excellent Public School education I received. I was fortunate that every School Bond that came to a vote was approved. I was fortunate that the citizenry of my Jersey town valued education whether or not they had children in the school system. I will never understand how anyone could think otherwise. I don’t have children, yet I vote in favor of School Bonds as should everyone.
3
I live in Idaho - we have one of the lowest per pupil expenditures and are one of the lowest performing states in the nation. When you point this out to our legislators they try to argue there is no relationship.
We have some of the lowest salaries for teachers. I am a professor of special education at a university and this reality impacts recruitment. How are we supposed to recruit strong people to the field when we refuse to actually invest in education.
I am very tired of working in a profession that is so poorly regarded - no matter what the lip service.
I started my career in the army - I left active duty as a brand new captain, then took my first special education position and a 50% - yes 50% - pay cut.
Kids deserve better.
5
Evelyn, I support you and what you are saying. I graduated from Borah High and Boise Junior college. I became certified after completing my music education degree from Washington State. I later got a Master's degree from Roosevelt University in Chicago.
I went into the Peace Corps in Malaysia and then returned to the US and started working as a music teacher in Illinois. I became a single parent who STRUGGLED financially to survive. I often paid around $1000 for supplies since the districts [5 total] where I worked didn't supply anything.
My wish is that politicians would realize that the future of this country is tied up in educating students. That should be our first priority..not $$$ for the military complex nor tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations.
I thank the NYT for informing people on just how bad education funding is in this country. PLEASE continue to do this necessary job.
1
As far as I know, no occupation other than teaching requires employees to spend their own money on supplies they need to do their jobs.
Our society assumes that teachers should do their jobs out of love, but everyone needs to make a living wage commensurate with their education and effort. $94K in Detroit was decent after some experience, but many of these people make less than $50K even after years on the job.
Our system needs to change, not to school vouchers as Betsy DeVos wants, but to fully funding schools. Our future is at stake.
2
So you think $94,000 is "decent"? it is TWICE the average wage of the Amermican FAMILY! and in low cost Detroit! how much is enough to pay a teacher to work PART TIME? $200K? $300? $400K?
1
We constantly hear about the death of unions, every teacher has to look out for themselves communities and children . Teachers are constantly being told to make do with nothing and children can learn from mythical thin air. Education reformer don't seem to want to reform the basics because that is meaureable not test scores based on no textbooks. They might have to put out money to make the buildings habitable and that would take away from there bottom line profit Apple only want to be in districts where they can get positive newspaper praise for doing nothing but marketing makes it seem like something. We are a mean country run by old men who care nothing about the population except how much money can they make off of our children. Listening to Facebook last week and how they monitor what people are doing and make money for themselves. Our third world country is going to explode and maybe we can create a better place to live, because it is not working in any venue now.
1
This is the outcome of Republican indoctrination that taxes are a bad thing. I thought the problem was mostly in Utah, where I live, which went from excellent schools to very low- rated ones. Is ir a reflection of the desire of the industrialists, who seem intent on running the world, to create a serf-like mass of people to do their bidding?
3
Gosh, just think how much of this could have been remedied by the millions spent on the two missile strikes on Syria that changed nothing. OK, so the chemical attacks were supposed to be a "crisis". Isn't THIS a crisis? When we ignore the importance of education and the nurturing of our youth, we are destroying the future of our country....which is much more critical that interfering and abetting conflicts in other countries. Where is Trump's "Nationalism" now?
2
Perhaps surviving these classroom conditions will provide the challenge and risk-taking that studies say children need but no longer face?
In all seriousness, the United States would do well to focus funds and attention on its schools. I'm sure Ms. DeVos has it well in hand.
1
When we the people of this great nation decide to properly fund K-12 education amazing changes will occur. Drop out rates will decrease to single digits, teenage pregnancy will decrease significantly, the multi-generational cycle of poverty will be broken, solutions to halt and reverse global warming will be found, crime rates will drop, incarceration levels will decrease, more innovation in all fields will blossom, incredible career opportunities will unfold, racial inequality will dissipate, and, most importantly, the sense of living a fulfilling and purposeful life will skyrocket. So let's tone down the military drumbeat and put our resources to work in more intelligent ways. Let's invest in our most valuable commodity--our youth. Then we can proudly pledge allegiance and loudly sing our national anthem because those words will now have true meaning for all the people. The solutions to our problems stare us in the mirror each and every day.
1
We ALREADY fund K-12 education at $21,000 PER STUDENT -- the highest rate in the world -- as high as anyplace in Europe and much more than most nations.
1
I read this article with much pain and sorrow. America's future is being jeopardized, students are bring shortchanged and teachers are being abused. Soon, no one is going to want to teach in public schools any longer, and a good elementary and secondary education will be unavailable to all but the children of those who can afford to pay for it. And on that day, the United States will be just another third world country. So very very Sad!
1
I am just curious, amongst all the issues of underfunding...is anyone a bit shocked that all of the male teachers make approximately twice as much as the female teachers. Even the female teacher with 3 degrees and a lot of experience. Perhaps this really plays into the district funding, but wow.
1
That’s true in many professions including my own, nursing. When I started out male new RN grads were hired at higher salaries than females. It wasn’t unusual for new hires of either sex to make as much as an experienced RN. My salary also wasn’t enough to live on my own, I needed a roommate to afford an apartment. I doubt much has changed.
This is at the heart of everything that is wrong in America. It affects everything, marriage, family, voting, or not voting. If you can imagine it, it is touched by this. And this from the wealthiest country in history.
These conditions, these pictures and these words reflect the further efforts to privatize our schools, and divest ourselves from the social and fiscal responsibility of fully educating our youth. The drive to subsidize charter schools is an effort to underwrite the furthering of a classed society, one dividing those that have with those that do not. At one time, public schools provide the basis for leveling the societal playing field, allowing all to achieve and attain that within their individual reach. But now, with real and imagined walls, both economically and socially, we are moving towards reflecting a European society from which we fled four hundred years ago, where it is more important to preserve, protect, promote, subsidize and nurture the economically and socially elite, rather than allow the full actualization and achievement of the masses. We fully neglect that institution which has done more to “make America great;” Public Education! Wake up people, these pictures and eloquent words convey all of that far better than anything I can add!
1
The problem is longstanding and repetitious in the nations's communities. One act of mass rebellion against it, while laudable, is useless. Those individuals need to organize into action groups who maintain a steady political drumbeat for their students' and their own needs. But many of them actually vote for the people who work against their students' and their own interests. Makes one wonder if these aren't just one-off events, to be repeated in another 30 years!!
No wonder our country is in such dire political straits. For a country to flourish, it needs citizens capable of thinking things through and analyzing situations, rather than just reacting emotionally. That requires thatits citizens learn to use their minds. A country that devalues education as ours apparently does is doomed to fail as a republic and to fail most of its citizens.
Another example of the gross inequality in this country as the well off send their kids to private schools and/or move to wealthy enclaves where teachers are well paid and budgets are far better (or parents are able to raise funds to supplement the budgets).
This story is appalling and sad. It is also a part of the reason I thought Bernie Sander's call for "free college for everyone" was highly unrealistic. First we must find ways to create good, safe, clean, well equipped education for our kindergartners and 5th or 12th graders.
A problem we are not acknowledging in our outrage is that more money is needed. That money comes from taxes, not out of thin air. We cannot fund these schools and pay these teachers simply by "cutting waste," a favorite idea for those who don't want to pay more in taxes. Good schools cost money. We all have to pay for it - or else pack away our empty outrage.
9
You are right. Excellent schools cost money. Schools cannot avail themselves of the same economic efficiencies that other enterprises can. Cutting costs are not the answer, unless the US is in a race to the bottom.
Teaching is a human enterprise, and salaries, professional development, buildings, programs, and supplies cost money. Even the most brilliantly run schools have costs that go up on an annual basis.
Donating to schools doesn’t cut it.
Taxes, other than property taxes which breed inequity, are the only answer—creatively structured national, state or local taxes to fund excellence in education.
We, as citizens, are responsible for the state of American education. And we get what we are willing to pay for. If we want to make America great, then we need an excellent educational system for ALL KIDS!
The only way is to start a national movement: RAISE OUR TAXES FOR EXCELLENT SCHOOLS!
1
to Anne: I am one of those "well off" I guess. when we lived in Port St Lucie, FL, the busing ran kids all over the county to have "equality". after not being selected for one of the many magnet schools, or the elementary school that was 8-10 blocks away, our daughter was selected to go to a school that was a 45 minute bus ride away in northern Ft. Pierce, FL.....look it up. She had turned 6 two weeks prior. she was to walk to the end of our street, get on the bus around 6:30 and ride the bus 45 minutes each way to a school in a neighborhood where they closed an eight foot chain link fence after classes started. As a "well off" couple driving 5 year old cars, we made our lifestyle meet the tuition that was $165.00 monthly to start with a further $150.00 for uniforms. She got a quality education while there. So my property taxes didn't go down, they remained the same. As a kid who grew up in forced bussing in a 50% black Delta region town, I wanted better. So do your homework before running your mouth at folks like me and my wife. I see it that we contributed more by NOT sending her to Francis K Sweet elementary school, and I would repeat what I did, it's my choice and my money. and amazingly, my daughter was never formally withdrawn, AND NOBODY NOTICED OR CALLED OR WROTE. She fell through the cracks, So don't blame us Well Off factory workers for wanting something better for our only child, having been educated in the desegregated south with busing.
1
This is one of the things that makes me sooo angry with this country. We want to be humanitarian heroes around the world, but as the saying goes "charity begins at home." Multimillionaires could donate school supplies and get fat tax write-offs. Or better yet, instead of local governments falling all over themselves courting a new Amazon warehouse, how about investing in the schools and infrastructure. As a parent, I always tried to go above-and-beyond when my children were in school. I sent extra supplies, volunteered in the classroom(s), and chaperoned trips. Other parents and I paid for parties, staged functions and planned trips where all the teacher had to do was get permission. I was even the Treasurer of the PTA. We (the PTA) would send out notices so the parents would know where every dollar was going. We made an agreement with a nearby supermarket so the children could have a daily healthy snack. (The student on best behavior for that period could go :) For picture day, the PTA paid for pictures for students whose parents couldn't afford them and provided clothes and hair supplies. I could go on and on... The teachers, students, parents, (let's not mention the teachers that are parents of school age children - they get the double whammy) are suffering. Everyone but the politicians that make the rules and cut the budgets.
And were the richest country in the world. 3rd world countries invest in their next generation. We could learn something from them.
10
I work in North Texas now. We moved from Louisiana. Before we moved, our family budget had a line item of a minimum of $80 per month to spend on classroom and professional resources. A lot of people don't understand that if your classroom isn't "kid friendly" or you don't have access to technology it can reflect poorly in your professional evaluations. One year, I only had a dry erase board and markers, no projector, no computer, no access to the lab because of mandated state testing. My evaluator gave me a score of 1 on the rubric for technology integration. These out-of-pocket expenditures are not by choice. It is the minimum required to keep our jobs at all.
12
I live in near the LES of Manhattan. My neighborhood includes 2 public Middle Schools and 2 public high schools. I walk my dog by them at least twice daily. The middle school, I.C.E., trashes some unbroken 50 -75 student desks every semester. They sit outside in a fenced in area for wks until the trash trucks arrive, also electronic eqt and tables. Out of state schools - please call the NYC Dept of Ed. The HS also dumps (neatly) unused paper supplies, file folders, etc on Second Ave. for the Trash trucks. We have an embarrassment of riches--Give us a call. I only know what I see on the curb.
8
I began my career as a high school teacher in an affluent district before leaving after a decade to teach in an urban district just an hour away. I thought I could improve as an educator and make more of a difference. The schisms I experienced in my first year were so vast and heartbreaking: lacking materials (especially no paper!), poorly organized administration, behaviors requiring police intervention, school meals declining in nutrition after funding was reduced.. etc.. After one year, I found myself profoundly changed as an individual. Most of all, I asked myself how such divides in education could exist in the wealthiest country in the world. As I continue my career, this is the question that will forever haunt me. I can make a difference daily in my own classroom, but how can we improve as a country? As Justice Sotomayor points out, "Unit we get equality in education, we won't have an equal society"
13
I began my career as a high school teacher in an affluent district before leaving after a decade to teach in an urban district just an hour away. I thought I could improve as an educator and make more of a difference. The schisms I experienced in my first year were so vast and heartbreaking: lacking materials (especially no paper!), poorly organized administration, behaviors requiring police intervention etc, funded meals declining in nutrition after funding was reduced.. etc.. After one year, I found myself profoundly changed as an individual. Most of all, I asked myself how such divides in education could exist in the wealthiest country in the world. As I continue my career, this is the question that will forever haunt me. I can make a difference daily in my own classroom, but how can we improve as a country? As Justice Sotomayor points out, "Unit we get a equality in education, we won't have an equal society"
1
Education in the US is broken beyond belief. What was once an engine of mobility now only serves to further stratify our society. I’ve worked in schools in the rural South, Bay Area and now Washington State and the disparities are astonishing. What’s interesting is in the wealthier cities, upper class families can choose to send their children to more expensive private schools and you are seeing an even deeper divide between public vs private. I will forever champion public ed and will continue to serve my students because I believe in the power of education to transform lives, but that belief doesn’t appear to be shared by our leaders.
7
I'm a school librarian in Chicago and I cannot begin to explain how I share the same issues as these teachers. For one, I'm "lucky" to have a job. We have 150 librarians serving 500+ schools -- most schools lack a librarian and therefore have no library. Once a librarian is cut, the library is just a room. It's typically closed and those books are never used again.
I've received $0 - $1,000 in a budget the past five years. $1k is enough to buy 80 books, maybe. The principal works diligently to insure school conditions are safe, so I'm thrilled to say we lack the pest issues other schools face. However, I feel like it's my part-time job to find funding for books, furniture, supplies, and you name it. I'm reimbursed $250 per year by CPS - and I usually spend all of it by October. Running a school library is not cheap, especially if you want a well-run library program with new books that pique students' interest. I spend my nights on Donorschoose and grant websites writing grants for the library. Speaking of which - you're welcome to donate to my library if you are so able. Donorschoose: Ms. Westerberg in Chicago. Gahhh, it's exhausting to beg strangers to purchase what this city, state, and country should provide. More books, less missiles.
Libraries are essential. I just wish more administrators realized this.
9
Chicago is not only one of the RICHEST cities in the US -- it is also run 100% by Democrats and unions for the last 80-90 years. It has very, veyr high taxes. So please tell me again why the schools are SO BAD in a blue blue blue liberal Democratic city.
1
When I was in elementary/middle school (2000-2008ish) we used textbooks from the 1990s and early 2000s all the time. They weren't as bad as the ones in the article but they would have been thrown out by the city library for being too beat up. The worn covers falling apart, the pages covered in grafitti, the outdated info- it's all familiar. As far as I can recall we also never learned about recent stuff like the Iran-Contra affair or Vietnam or Iraq either. I went to elementary and middle school in a very rich school district but sometimes there weren't enough seats in the classrooms for the kids and the textbooks were absolutely shredded and outdated too.
4
Our president wants to spend 20 billion dollars on a wall that is of questionable value. That same 20 billion dollars works out to $200/student because we have 50 million students in public and primary schools. Seems like we would be far better off as a nation spending that money on students vs a wall.
9
As a parent volunteer in my local public elementary school, everything in this article rings true. I have bought everything from commercial soap dispensers to art supplies for our art teacher who has been given $0 for art supplies the past 2 years. Teachers in my school always need pencils and paper, and most start rationing paper as spring approaches. Our school has no potable water or air conditioning, leaving the classrooms unbearably hot starting in May. The bathrooms smell so bad that my sons choose to hold it in rather than try to stay in there longer than they have to. I could go on, but you get the idea. I'm not sure how or why Baltimore City public schools have been allowed to reach this deplorable state, but it is infuriating. The Republican governor of MD blames Baltimore city, which is overwhelmingly black and poor, for wasting money. Moreover, the state is loath to increase funding for what is commonly viewed as an inefficient and corrupt city bureaucracy. I've no doubt that city schools can be better managed and have some bad actors. But for anyone who thinks Baltimore public schools are wasting money and don't deserve anything, I'd love to take them on a tour of my zoned school and show them the broken floor tiles that haven't been fixed for the past year; the broken pipe in one of the bathrooms that gushes water onto the floor; and the torn curtain in the auditorium that hasn't been repaired in decades. The situation is heartbreaking and infuriating.
1
The US has underfunded schools for decades. We have also wasted money on testing and "experts" rather than providing funds to teachers and schools. This has been true in both Republican and Democratic administrations. Schools need better resources, smaller classes, and teachers who are well paid and feel appreciated rather than chastised by people like Betsy De Vos who knows nothing about public education.
7
[new]Textbooks are for publishers to make money; you come to school wanting to learn, you will learn. stop counting the things you don't have.
1
New textbooks yearly is all about publishers making money. But when schools are using books that list George H. W. Bush as the most recent president, and many are, that certainly limits what kids are likely to learn.
Yet there's always someone trying to excuse the inexcusable way we underfund our schools.
2
No, new textbooks provide updated information.
Before the billionaires save Africa, they should save America. How easy it would be for America's billionaires to solve this problem. These children are The Future! How self-destructive can we be?
10
How about a realistic tax structure and state budgets- Most of these profoundly underfunded schools are in locations where state and local governments have deliberately starved schools in favor of low taxes
1
In Wisconsin, things are not as bad, in larger metro areas. (I'm sure in rural areas, things are not good.) What has saved us is decades of powerful advocacy by a once formidable (now nearly extinct) teacher's union. It's destruction one was of the first moves of conservatives under Walker. Yet, the greater problem is not just the condition of supplies/facilities but the inability to attract top students into the profession. This is my 25th year and while I have worked with many people who were dedicated and talented, I don't ever remember a kid in the Top Ten saying they sought to go into education. When our system is compared to Finland or other top performers, they're recruiting the best and brightest into the field with great pay and benefits, not poverty and disparaging rhetoric. Honestly, I have discouraged my own kids from going into education - why would they? Not the money, the benefits, the respect, that's for sure! Part of the problem stems from the home-school movement. Not that I begrudge them the right, but the idea that a parent with no background in education could take the place of a dozen or so teachers a year that a student has in school, is just shy of saying I'll fix my car with a hammer myself. They mean well and might have a real need (as did a child in our extended family) but everyone thinks they can be a teacher because they had teachers in school, and how hard was that? Like the duck on the water, easy and smooth, but paddles like mad underwater!
3
Has anyone examined the salaries of staff at the Board of Education for these districts, including Superintendents of schools.? While I fully support increased funding for school teachers and general funds, it is important to assess the level of remuneration for Board of Ed workers as well. Much like CEO's, these salaries have risen precipitately in the last decade or more, and this needs to be evaluated.
5
State Legislatures ruin the country. DC does a fine job too but look local and you can see how they can easily remove funding. Republican led legislatures have been bleeding education for 20+ years. It's no wonder the US is statistically failing in Math, Science and Reading against other first world countries.
5
So right! Same here in FL. Terrible schools. Republicans always cut funding for education. The little funding that goes toward education is now split with private charter schools.
CA does not have republicans but cuts education spending just as well.
This story and the pictures made me cry. No article in the last two disastrous years has done that. We need to do something.
1
Don't see this in my area. Our schools are mostly old but they are kept repaired and clean. Salaries are good, lots of employees, supplies, tools for education adequate, clubs, activities, trips, sports. Education would have our taxes go up every year. If we don't allow it, they learn to budget. In Japan, the kids clean the schools.
3
I remember that starting in 5th grade we had a rotating schedule to empty trash cans, clean the blackboard, clean erasers, close the windows, sweep, and mop the floor of our classroom. Each of us was responsible for placing our chair on our desk before leaving so the "cleaning crew" could do their jobs.
2
Gosh you are very lucky and very much the exception. Tennessee no less. Ha!
Plenty of money for coaches and administrators.
3
My local district has a "PR and Marketing Administrator" to promote the school district to potential buyers in the area. She earns $150K a year to work 8 months.
1
Some people believe that teachers get a three month vacation. Maybe things have changed but when my aunt was a English teacher in Texas, high school teachers were required to obtain a Master's Degree, at their own expense, before the first five years of their teaching was over. I remember having high school teachers who were enrolling in summer college classes, again at their own expense, to get an advanced degree to keep their job. Even after she had her Master's degree, my aunt had to take college classes in the summer to keep her accreditation.
I don't think of enrolling in college every summer, at your own expense, as a vacation.
5
Of course it’s “ at their own expense”, who else should it be? After obtaining the Masters, teachers receive a pay increase for the rest of their careers. Many also accumulate more graduate credits until they hit milestones (60, 90...) which again bump up their pay and puts them in a different column on the pay scale. Good for them, but it’s not selfless.
2
The condition of our schools is just like most everything else in this country including our crumbling infrastructure, the condition of our National parks, and on and on. Our "leaders" ESPECIALLY NOW, are completely incompetent and morally corrupt. Our President is no longer at all, and cares about nothing but his narcissistic image and hiding all his corruption. This is leadership? We are in a desperate situation people, and most are just too dumb to see it.
6
Long Island teacher salaries are corrupt. They make a fortune, while the rest of the country teachers get axed. It's incredible. Career teachers make more than triple what teachers with equivalent experience in this article make.
Times - please expose this crooked racket in an article...
You can start here with the "Sachem Central Schools"
http://lohud.nydatabases.com/database/educator-salaries-new-york
2
It's true that Long Island teachers have relatively high salaries. However, consider the fact that as a result of these salaries teachers are lining up to work at the LI districts. Principals have greater choice and thus the children on LI benefit immensely. Long Island schools are probably some of the few districts in the country that are actually going about this the right way! Also consider that the teacher salaries/benefits you are upset about likely belong to teachers who are near retirement. Younger teachers in New York who are just starting out have had many of those benefits and perks eroded away by the state legislature.
2
.... and NYSUT ( the teachers union ) is the largest lobby ( aka “ special interest group”) in NY State. Look it up. It is indeed a racket. They are advocating for teachers, not schools. Sometimes the interests coincide, sometimes they don’t. Long Island and Westchester taxpayers are holding the huge tax dollar bags.
1
Now that's how you compete with China...
4
This is like something out of the Waltons.......... in 2018.
I feel the pain of many educators across the country, but do not feel sorry for any of you.
I taught for 12 years , earned multiple advanced degrees, and are now an administrator in a public high school. There are MANY flaws in our system as it stands, but the"feel sorry for me"attitude has to stop.
There are too many incompetent teachers. Less than 20%of our teachers are good, fewer are great. The entitlement modus operandi that I hear most teachers regularly complain about concerning our hipster, generation X students is an exact explanation of our problem.
Most do not want the feds controlling education in each state, yet are quick to drop blame when a borderline propaganda piece such as this makes the editing cut list. Education funding is the responsibility of states, not D.C.
If you're tired of low wages, poor working conditions, and weak support from state legislators, then move or choose another profession.
Do any of you truly expect an expose piece in NYT to heighten the senses of lawmakers and trigger cash to flow from the sky? Make what you have work. Be more efficient. Relate to children and their generation, not your generation and what you think they should know. The x's and o's of curriculum hasn't changed much, but the griping and self preservation of the snowflake mentality sure has.
Don't depend on your Democrat or Republican ideals, depend on your creativity and desire to"leave it better than you found it. "
5
You're not a competent administrator.
I say this with complete conviction, as another admin. This is a real issue, and the situation is dire. If you're denying it, there's no way you're competent.
13
This is an incredibly heartless response to these stories.
11
Of course you’re the administrator.
9
Do any of you speak French? British Columbia is desperately recruiting French Immersion teachers in Europe for its public schools which recently received a huge boost in funding under a court order.
1
How is it that coaches can make up to $100,000 and clasroom teachers make, in some schools, less than $40,000.00?
For instance, In Alabama a high school coach can make upwards of $120,000.00 per annum while the classroom teacher makes $44,000.00 a year.
I live in AZ which as about 48th in education.
This is unconsionable. Classroom teachers need to go on food stamps in order to feed their family.
Of course, the mindset of some politicions is to keep their constituents ignorant which makes them so easy to control.
6
Maybe you should take up coaching?
3
Too old.
too old
Yes, the biology book in the photo is THE book we used in my high school in the 90s.
3
The USA is the wealthiest "third world" country on the planet. We focus only on quarterly corporate profits and ignore everything else. So shameful what a tattered republic we've become.
196
Not a "tattered republic" but rather a "banana republic".
5
Don't forget the obscene DoD budget that gets "boosted" year after year: over $700+ billion in 2018. And they've only just recently started to actually audit how it gets spent.
3
Marijuana should be legalized in every state and all the money generated from taxing marijuana should go toward education. Education is the most important gift we can give to our future generations and our country.
1
Not that I’m opposed, but they did that with the lottery. See what that got you? Until we all (including those that do not have school age children) decide to pay more in taxes for the betterment of everyone, this will continue. Until we vote out all those that are incompetent pocket-lining kiss-ups this will continue. Until people realize what a huge responsibility it is to have kids this will continue.
So that’s the solution? Are you kidding me? How about all those corporations such as Apple that make their money here pay their share of taxes first? How aboout those 1% people who get tax breaks after tax breaks pay their taxes? And if marijuana money is somehow not enough what’s going to be legalized next? Maybe the probelm is with people who think that being able to legally smoke weed is more important than other things such as education...
Is this possibly a way in which only those educated in private and semi-private schools get access to a truly decent education?
Is this scenario playing out to keep those in public schools mired in the 20th century while their peers in the aforementioned class fast track to the elite colleges and universities?
Are our top schools where the boys in the back rooms teach the ropes in the acceptable ways to run the show and divide the loot?
I really don't get these boys in men's clothing who, regardless party affiliation, have been running this sideshow they call a main act for decades.
Worse yet is that our electoral system coupled with partisan redistricting allowed a minimum of voters to put these absolutely unfunny clowns in office.
This isn't a glitch, this is what some greedy, shortsighted, very wealthy men and women wanted and our Supreme Court complied. Thanks to the blinding attraction of wealth and the power it brings the scales of justice have become unbalanced.
We were a truly great nation, but we are not any more. All the men and women who hold the actual reins of power know this and just don't care. They seek public office in order to aggrandize private and personal interests. We are being taken for a ride, but only the kids seem to be aware they are the victims.
The education isn't limited to the private schools. As a matter of fact, public schools, with all the shortfalls in their funding, statistically do a better job of educating students than do privates.
Of course, private school parents do a better job of helping their kids do well in life, for the simple reason that they're affluent enough to pay private school tuition, but public schools really are spinning gold out of straw.
We should pay public school teachers to reflect that.
3
This is the nation’s future, in thee words and photos. What in the world are people thinking when they let this happen?
1
I am not the only person who believes that the gutting of our Public Schools is a deliberate long-term program by power-hungry people who simply don't want the population at large to be able to analyze what's happening to them. They need us to be smart enough to assemble widgets and hammer nails, but not so informed that we can actually figure out that the tax-cutting crowd is creating an impoverished nation.
7
Wait, what's wrong with chalk boards? Finnish teachers still use them, too. I get students who reach my junior-year classroom and have forgotten how to write things with pen and pencil. They can't read something unless it's typed. Screens are backwards compatible with handwriting but not vise versa.
Of course, I'd rather not have to buy my own chalk. Nor the light bulbs my students need to read the board. But hey, the district had to pay for the $400 million contract with HP somehow. What were they supposed to do? Raise a tax? Ha! They'll only do that to pay for us to train as "sentinels" under an NRA-certified instructor.
Teachers have a front-row seat to the not-so-slow collapse of a great civilization.
3
This all sounds appalling in the world’s foremost economy. The situations read like rural villages in poor developing countries. Kudos to the Teachers who struggle in this environment.
2
Here's one thing you can do right now: Donate DIRECTLY to the public school district you live in. And do it even if you don't have children in the schools. That's how you vote with your checkbook.
This is different from donating to whatever education foundation your district may have. These local foundations are restricted to funding enrichment activities for students, and, although well-intended, can be used as justification for lower tax-based funding. If you donate to the district directly, you are showing your town or city that you believe schools inherently deserve more money. By deliberately paying more than the required tax, you are taking a personal stand.
Of course, fundamentally what we need is less money for military adventures and costly giveaways to the ultra-rich. If President Trump wants to invest in THIS country, take that money and put it into our public schools.
Not sure on this. I think you would need to ask very serious questions about where the donation goes. I think locating a school in the area, talking to the community - teachers, parents - would be more likely to ensure a donation goes directly to a ground-level need.
I definitely agree on foundations, as well as PTA's or PTO's. Not to disparage the concept, but there aren't usually a lot of safeguards to ensure responsibility.
2
PTOs and PTAs and education foundations do great work. We should donate to them and support them.
My point is that they don't, and can't, make up for inadequate tax revenues.
What I suggest is that we ALSO donate directly to school districts.
There is no suggestion here that teachers, parent organizations, or school administrations are irresponsible. The problem is almost entirely that they need more funding.
As a public school teacher I'd like to clarify a very important point. As a result of Americans With Disabilities Act and related regulations, ALL children are entitled to an education. This is an essential development in disability rights but it comes at a cost to localities.So when calculating per pupil spending for a district it is the average per pupil. That number includes these expenses plus administrative costs, testing costs, consultants and other garbage, and also the unfunded mandates. Sadly, a school district isn't required to have updated textbooks but it is required to comply with federal and state mandates. All children deserve an education, we need to fully fund this at the federal and state levels. Poorer districts cannot afford this.
4
Anyone who is shocked by this didn't attend public school. I went to a "pretty good" public school in the 80s and early 90s. We had trash cans in the middle of the halls to catch leaks, and I remember laughing that my history textbook was published in 1957 (this was in the 80s). No A/C, of course, except in the principal's office. You were lucky if your teacher had an oscillating fan in September and June. As students, we took it in stride and joked about it, but the underlying message was that no one really cared (except our teachers).
5
I'd like to see an analysis on the diversity in these areas. I would like to see how much tax money is spent on a per student basis and what the student teacher ratio is within these classrooms. As we have opened our doors to the third world, I for one would expect terrible conditions to exist in many of these school systems. I live in a wealthy area but supporting all of these immigrants is getting very expensive i.e ESL, free breakfast, lunch and dinner, additional teachers, free pre school etc. Something has got to give. Liberalism has failed we need to find a new approach.
2
The failure, here, is entirely of people who claim to be conservative. They're the ones who've gutted a system that's been remarkably effective, historically.
The immigrants aren't the problem, despite what our ignorant president tells his ignorant supporters. These are, by and large, American kids. We're just too focused on tax breaks for billionaires to bother educating them.
3
Why is this article about the challenges teachers face not the times lead story??
Is it because your readers and the constituents in those districts don't care enough for the times to make it the lead story?
As an American I am ashamed of how we are destroying our children's future.
Barry Tuch
1
The GOP is working to destroy public schools in this state, so they can expand "school choice." But there is no choice involved for the working poor who can't shuttle their kids across town or the county to the new shiny charter or magnet school. Make no mistake; defunding public school is class warfare.
4
There is more mystery here than I think people realize. Sometimes the state spending per pupil is average to above average and still we read horror stories from that state.
Where is the money going? One thing to remember is that teachers do get a pension and teacher healthcare benefits are typically very good.
Not to pick on the teachers but I would like to see total salary and benefits paid by school districts, not just salaries. If salaries and benefits take up 2/3rds to 3/4ths of school budgets in states with adequate spending , then it becomes more understandable that there's not enough money for everything else.
Here's a good one pager with more about school spending per state and per pupil.
http://www.governing.com/gov-data/education-data/state-education-spendin...
2
Teacher healthcare benefits aren't terribly good. But people looking to pivot from the embarrassment that is our public education funding and policy always claim otherwise.
3
There would be no need for this article, if congress took educating our future nation as seriously as they do making sure there are tax breaks for the wealthy.
The people's representatives?
1
Meanwhile, money is siphoned from underfunded public schools to support unregulated charter schools.
5
I'm appalled by this report. I commend the teachers for their dedication and resourcefulness. I'm lucky to be able to homeschool my children in a comfortable, clean, and safe environment with technology, current textbooks, and plenty of supplies. Of course, this is only for 4 kids. They also take part in enrichment classes, use the museums, libraries, and homeschool clubs. Should we set up a Go Fund Me?
No. Probably you should send your kids to a public school and support a system that offers a better education than homeschooling, and offers it to all kids, not just the ones of parents who can opt out and fend for themselves.
5
I read these stories and they make me really glad that I am a retired elementary music teacher. I used to spend around a thousand each year for materials since the districts in which I worked (5 total) in Illinois did not provide materials. I was a single parent who could barely survive.
I would occasionally take my young daughter to McDonalds and never order anything for myself. I couldn't afford a meal.
One time I bought some individually wrapped chocolates for Halloween. I had two packages that were unopened. I returned them to the grocery store because I couldn't afford to eat them. I remember the cashier made a nasty comment about me. I was angry that I was so poor. [I had a Master's degree plus graduate hours.]
I remember one time it was payday. I had to put gas into my car to make it to work. I only had $.75 cents in my wallet so I put in $.75 cents. I made it to school.
I tried to save money and joined the credit union. One year I was able to save $50.00. This was in a total of 20 years of work.
I finally got disgusted and left the US and worked as an elementary music teacher in Bolivia for two years and in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for 9 years. I, for the first time in my life, made a good salary working at the International School of Kuala Lumpur. I managed to save a considerable amount of money (for a teacher) and received a measly pension for my 20 years of work in Illinois.
3
I have no problem with 25 year old textbooks, that's a lot better than nothing, which is what the majority of my children's classes had. I bought 40 year old textbooks for them to use so they would have a good math education and not have to depend on crummy notes hastily copied from the board that was hard to see with 45 in the class. The books were in the same condition as when I was in high school - 'used, vg or g'. Thank you Mary P. Dolciani, Hunter College, for writing decent math textbooks.
2
While reading through this article, what comes to mind is this...these are the future voters and workers. During this past election I was amazed at the lack of understanding that Americans have about how our government works. Civics classes was/were a requirement in sixth and the ninth grades when I was a student of the 70s and 80s. Our children in this country just aren't ready to compete in global market and it's not because a lack of excellent teachers. My state, Texas, claims that money from the lottery games are being used to better our schools and veterans. If that was the case, why did I among with other parents working as volunteers, had to step in the gap to help these teachers. I said had because we( volunteers) saw the need to help these teachers educate our children. Also Texas runs it's schools as independent school districts. That means that if you are in a failing district and you want your child to be educated in an excellent or recognized district measured by the state testing, you have to move. I sold my house at a loss to do this. My current house I moved into has gone up so much in price that I wouldn't have been able to move here when I did because of this excellent district. The schools here are driving up the home prices.
All our children has the right to be able to receive a good education no matter which state or area that child is in.
2
The lottery fiction is a lie. States set a budget long before the lottery money is taken in. While that money goes for education, it's not bonus money. It just frees up money from the states' general funds to spend for other things, that otherwise they'd have had to put towards the education spending they've already budgeted. The whole "play the lottery to support education" angle is just marketing.
2
I remember watching a show where a company made an indestructible laptop that had educational software on it. They then gave it to children in third world countries so they could be educated. We have too many schools that replicate a third world environment, so why doesn't a company, or the government, do the same for public schools.
1
What about public/private partnerships? Maybe Walmart, Lowes or OSH would like to adopt a local school to offset costs for capital improvements. The parents are rich in skills and there is no shortage of desire to help kids succeed.
Why not actually funding education, instead of going to private corporations that invariably want some benefit or return on that investment, even if it isn't in kids' best interests?
4
The problem is pensions, not lack of spending. I know of 60 year old retired librarians, phys ed, kindergarten teachers making 65k pensions with COLA..this is a million dollar annuity..anyone with a million dollar annuity is a millionaire(and since they all have houses, savings, CD far more than that).Superintendents in the Northeast have pensions from 150-300k worth many millions..even asst superintendents and principals can be in six figures. Since the "bosses" benefit the most they will not pay any attention to it and just pull the wool over the eyes of the PTA parents, who march and demonstrate as proxies. The same is true for police/fire chiefs who demonstrate Steven Hawking math skills when it comes to calculating their pensions so of course encourage the rank and file to do the same. Without addressing this nothing will change Growing up in the 60s college degrees were rare but everyone in private sector I know has a degree, a masters, brings home work, monitors email so a relatively easy to achieve teaching degree does not impress the STEM graduates trying to make a living , working year round and funding their own pension. That is where the money goes, pure and simple and the most recent Pew analysis of public pensions shows us 5 Trillion short, 5x the shortfall per capita of social security. individual teachers in Okla, W Virginia (and Connecticut ) all have higher average incomes than the HOUSEHOLDS in these states..look it up
4
Paying teachers teachers' salaries plus a pension is still cheaper than paying them what equivalent private sector workers are paid. As teachers, they traded the earnings that level of education would command in any other job for security. Now you're demanding they give up the security.
Yes, teachers' pensions are underfunded. Just like EVERY aspect of education is underfunded. The solution is to fund it.
3
You blather on as if teacher's pensions are gifts from the taxpayers. A good chunk of our monthly salary goes into that pension every single month. And we don't pay into Social Security. In some states, like mine, I won't be able to collect on that even though I worked at other jobs. On top of what I pay for my pension out of my paycheck, I also put money into an annuity, since I won't be able to ever collect Social Security (even though I worked at other jobs.) Our health care isn't free to us, either. In my district our health care costs have gone up consistently for about the last 10 years. I work with colleagues who pay twice what they paid ten years ago. It isn't the teacher's fault that municipalities lost control of their pensions. It isn't the stock market. It's the magical thinking of people like you, who think that cutting taxes will never come back to bite you.
1
with the exception of some STEM degrees there is no private sector equivalent. k-8, phys ed, librarian. 2 of the teacher cited who complain make 95-110k a year.. I never made that in IT in Conn(and know few that have) despite 2+ degrees . We have paid every penny of pension so far through superman sacrifices of taxpayer and if they were fully funded it may be another 25k a year which would be totally unsustainable and put a teacher as top 1% of total comp
I live in a very affluent part of the country. My children are incredibly privileged to attend the schools that they do. My 6 year old, when discussing a fundraiser she is currently preparing for for her Santa Monica public school said "80% of the school is about money" - America - these are our children.
1
Of there is one thing that the government does that should be lavishly funded, it is our schools.
1
The dilapidated buildings and supply shortages are a result of money wasted on salaries and benefits for bad teachers. New York City is but one example of this nationwide problem that the NYT wrote about in September:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/07/opinion/new-york-bad-teachers.html
"In July, two weeks after the State Legislature reauthorized mayoral control of the public school system, Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration quietly announced a policy reversal: In the coming year, schools will once again be forced to hire teachers that no other school has wanted to hire. As a former principal of a high school in the Bronx, I find it hard to imagine receiving worse news."
"The new policy concerns the approximately 800 teachers in the city’s Absent Teacher Reserve pool, a remnant of a teacher-placement system based on seniority, not what’s best for schools or children. These are teachers who, for whatever reason, have not gotten a job in any of the city’s 1,700 schools, sometimes for many years. The city is in this position because the union contract makes dismissing teachers a virtual impossibility. A result is that taxpayers spend more than $150 million a year to pay them not to teach."
1
This is a persistent myth, instigated by Republicans bent on defunding public schools and repeated by idiots.
The union contracts lay out a simple process for firing bad teachers. It's not hard. They just have to actually be bad teachers.
2
I have been watching the teacher activism and debate since the teacher strike in west virgina. I think its just super that teacher protests are making the fat-cats in the state legislature sit up and pay attention. I'm hoping the student activism on gun safety has a similiar effect!
I was appalled at the pay and conditions and had no idea it was so bad. I live just outside Houston, Texas and experience little to none of the problems described in the article, our schools are modern with fabulous sporting and extra curricular facilities, and the teachers reasonably well paid (I am a JH math teacher + I have kids in the district - so I am speaking from my own experience) - I understand many teachers leave Oklahoma and Arkansan to come to Texas to teach - who can blame them!
I deliberately picked Katy ISD to live in because of the school districts success. Now, we all pay property tax to fund our schools and upgrades and new schools are built from bond raising (which we vote on) so from where I stand, it works well.
I feel that we have a real say in what happens in our school district and our ISD board pays close attention to funding what the students need to be successful
To me, this is a local city and state matter, they should be held accountable for the school policies and funding. I don't know how schools outside of Texas are funded, maybe what I am seeing is the outlier, not the norm.
1
A few years back, retired Justice Souter spoke of a threat to our nation rooted in education, or more precisely a lack thereof. "Souter warned of a person, with little regard for democratic norms and political institutions, who could come forward seeking power, assuring the public that he’ll solve our problems, exploiting fears and civic ignorance.
"That is the way democracy dies. And if something is not done to improve the level of civic knowledge, that is what you should worry about at night.”" [from an MSNBC article - with Souter's words in quotes.]. This article seems to reinforce the concerns. And explain how this President got elected.
Our education policies are not just to avoid a work force that, being under educated and less skilled earns less, spends less, needs more etc. It is essential to educate people so they can better understand the world around and make more informed decisions on who they elect as policy makers.
2
Public schools in the city:
*Sheets of peeling paint in K4, K5, and 1st grade classrooms...in a 1920 building. Lead?
*Papers and book pages stick to the children because there is no air conditioning.
*No math workbooks (integral to the curriculum) because there is no money in the budget.
*First grade student/teacher ratios at 36:1, with an assistant one hour per day.
*Typical hours students' parent(s) work per week is 40 to 60. Income: low
12 miles away from the city public schools:
*Freshly painted classrooms in newer buildings.
*Children bring sweaters in case a/c is too cold.
*Math workbooks AND homework workbooks!
*First grade student/teacher ratios. 24:1 (or less). An assistant for at least half the day.
*Typical hours students' parent(s) work per week is 40 to 60. Income: Middle/high middle
Why? Difference in property tax income.
As a teacher, I witnessed the above. As an American, I heard blame FOR all people close to the situation FROM people who weren't.
My teacher wish has always been Empathy over Judgement. That people would take time to understand instead of being quick to blame. Maybe then things could change.
3
It is getting harder and harder to get into top 25 US Universities because more and more qualified students apply, SAT and ACT become harder and harder as many more students make perfect scores on them so something is going right in the US education. When I needed books for my son I got them on ebay for shipping costs.
1
You are describing an interesting phenomenon that I have observed as well. My son attended a public school in Southern California that was a magnet for high achievers. He received a much better education than I did in the 1970’s. I think that we are seeing public education separate into layers. While some hard working students at better funded schools have access to quality public education, other young Americans receive inadequate education. I think we’ve given up on the idea that everyone should receive a good-enough public education.
1
Each US aircraft carrier costs millions to maintain. Playing policeman to the world is very expensive. Each cruise rocket cost $1 million. A nation cannot have a very expensive military and good schools.
12
But the US spends far more per child than you do in Australia -- we are not cheaping out on education to buy air craft carriers. We are spending the money! but the money is being siphoned off to pay lavish wages and benefits to members of a wealthy and powerful union, that uses union dues to bribe Democratic politicians. Most Americans are utterly ignorant of how much teachers earn (some of the examples here were cherry picked to seem "poor" -- what you don't know in Australia is those schools are in very low-cost areas where $33K goes a LONG way) -- the union has professional PR people and a long reach on social media, to push the false idea that "teachers are low paid everywhere".
1
But there will always be billions for arms in this country. That's outrageous, dangerous and plain stupid.
17
I wish teachers and other civil service people would understand that the entire middle class has been beaten down. At least they do not have H-1b holders taking their jobs. The unions have never stuck up for the private sector middle class, and as Detroit should have taught them, you cannot have a strong public sector middle class without a strong private sector middle class. Instead, the unions demand more and more immigration, and wonder why the middle class is going, going .....
8
There are H1b "body shops" catering to public school system with foreign teachers. It isn't publicized much, but it is a regular thing in some school districts. And yes, children with auditory processing issues lose out due to heavy accents, teaching styles are not as flexible... the list goes on.
2
The entire middle class has been beaten down, but outside of education, you don't find many people with advanced degrees and a decade of experience in their field still making a salary that qualifies them for food stamps.
Yes, teachers really do have it worse than you.
3
Somehow, Utah manages to be ranked #20 in the states for educational outcomes for K-12, while spending roughly half ($6,500) the national average per student. It's local culture, people, not dollar spending, that makes the difference in how students do in school. And it's not because it's a low-mobility state, either. 8% of Utahns were born in another country, with nearly half of those from Mexico and El Salvador.
2
Eight per cent? Wow. What a tough situation,since that means NINETY-TWO percent of Utahans were born in Utah. Since that's how the math works, in case you have forgotten. Give me a break. That is the definition of a low-mobility state. It is dollars, in particular how that money is spent that makes a difference.
3
Words cannot express the gratitude I feel towards educators standing up to our government and saying enough is enough. I too am a 14 year veteran in the public school system and I make 36,800.00 annually (in a place where a pound of grapes cost 10.00)and often find myself spending my money to subsidize basic items in the classroom. Teachers are left to purchase paper, ask parents and friends to make copies, raise money to buy ink, used 10 to 15 year old text books, share desks with other teachers, mop flooded classrooms, and purchase water (because the water fountains are rusted out and haven't worked in years) just to name a few. I love my job and it is shameful that this is where we are with education in America.
14
Welcome to the U.S. of A. A country whose priorities could not be more backwards; whose budget is dedicated to bombs and defense. May one ask: defense of what? Why are teachers paid so little that they can not save for either a rainy day or for retirement? How is it possible that schools have been allowed schools to sink in to such disrepair that teachers must buy paint, do the painting and plug the holes in walls and ceilings? How can we allow biology to be taught through 25-year-old books? How can we blame students for cutting class and being bored out of their minds? This nation is doing a profound disservice to its children. Who should it surprise when we fall further and further behind in the sciences, when we are poised to become a third-rate country. And people complain bitterly at the rate at which they are taxed. The complaints should be not at amounts, but in the reckless way in which funds are spent. Having retired after forty years of teaching at some of the nations elite Universities and a leading state college, I can attest to the profound lack of preparation of students for college level courses. Students come to universities woefully unprepared; a certain number require remedial reading and writing courses as the educational can is kicked further down an unending road. The time is now for parents, indeed anyone interested in the education of children in this country to act and remedy the system. How about BOOKS NOT BOMBS!!
16
There can be no equal opportunity for all if there is not equal education for all.
Education has never been a preoccupation of the government of the US. From the beginning, the rich, land-owning class, farmers, and later, the middle classes, were loath to pay higher taxes to educate the general population, and especially the poor. The Department of Education, a cabinet-level department only since 1979, has no direct jurisdictional control.
Education in America is financed largely through local property taxes. This guarantees the richest districts get the best schools and the poorest districts the worst. Promises from congress to fix the educational system are empty and meaningless. The only way change in the education system can be effected is to change the way public schools are funded. Which means turning many powers of education over to the Federal government.
Conservatives, and states’ rights advocates demonize federal involvement in education. This is just a feint to allow state and local legislators to continue their control over education and capriciously and disproportionately reduce funding for schools in the poorest districts.
In order to assure a just distribution of equal opportunity in education, and teacher pay, congress needs to enact a national education act just as it did when it passed the Voting Rights Act to help assure that all Americans could vote.
15
The problem is, that this article represents a sample of public schools with the problems shown. Are they real? Without a doubt. Does it happen more then it should? Of course. Is it the only case. No. My kids attended an urban district in New Jersey where classes never had over 17ish kids in them, and a district in California, where there were larger class sizes and less arts, but a gorgeous physical plant. In no case did they ever have garbage books; though there were a few times I was asked to kick in a few bucks. Point is, there is plenty of good out there. In modern America - take that back - In America, folks are much more responsible for themselves then elsewhere in the west. This is part of the culture and therefore individuals have to seek the best for their kids, and vote in school board elections.
2
New Jersey has, if memory serves, the second highest education funding in the nation.
These examples are far more representative of most Americans' schools than is your experience.
1
David: I understand your point. There is a lot of good out there. I work in the Cupertino School District in the Bay Area. We have up-to-date curriculum, current technology, recently refurbished school sites .I have friends who have taught in other school districts in the Bay Area, and they have not had the same experiences. And to be perfectly honest, we had to work really hard to get the voters in our area to approve the bonds to pay for a lot of this. It's not just about who the superintendent is or who is on the school board. It is about how states and local governments choose to spend their money, and where they choose to make cuts. That's the problem. As for your focus on individual responsibility, I beg to differ. We're in this fix because people are only concerned about their OWN kids. We need to be concerned about all kids. The taxpayers and legislators in this country have to stop being so myopic, shortsighted, and self-centered.
1
I believe that the general unwillingness of our elected leaders and many taxpayers to fund education in the US stems from some mythical notion of America as a land of self-made people. Like stories of Abraham Lincoln walking 4 miles to school and other founders who had no resources pushing through and excelling despite all odds. It's part and parcel of the corrosive "up by the bootstraps" legend we have about ourselves. The global market is competitive and we can either join it by investing in education or continue to fall farther behind.
13
Disgustingly low salaries and bad classroom conditions. Take a look at the cities and states for the highest paid vs. lowest paid teachers profiled here. Notice a pattern?
5
Our society is eating its young and its poor.
11
Re teachers and students with duct-taped textbooks and wasps in the ceilings— how much was spent sending missiles to Syria that changed nothing while America’s future dies from neglect in our schools? And the billionaire Kochs and DeVos family et al. fund talking points to demonize these teachers paying from their own empty pockets so their students will have pencils and paper? And let me just guess the racial and socio-economic makeup of those schools...
11
For crying out loud, this is nothing new! I recall as a student in elementary School in the late 1950's, textbooks from the 1930's! We survived and our NYC Public Schools were still the elite educational venues in the land! This is not to condone the abysmal state of our Public School infrastructure! But, never forget this, our nation doesn't value the mind, rarely did, and we are a business lead nation, and that's the way it is!
4
Well then.....sounds like “we” are overdue for the wealthiest country on earth to correct this shameful situation. There are many school districts that are in significantly better shape. Benchmarking and levelized resource allocation would be a good start to fix this. You get what you are willing to live with.
6
To the teacher who spent $500 on a few books - my local library sells used books for a buck apiece, and groups like 'Inkslingers' in Mensa donate books, as well as any number of other service orgs. Students don't need new books, they need reading material. If they have access to a library (free) and/or a $200 laptop, they have access to every book in the world. In a really poor town, one house on every street could get internet access and wifi and all could share the cost. Think outside the box just a little, people.
3
A few points: They will all be reading different books, many of them inappropriate to the relevant subject matter; in a poor town there may not be a library; in a poor town who will pay the monthly cost for block-by-block internet and wifi; in a poor town who will pay for the laptops.
8
So what are they supposed to do? Take one busted lap-top and share it with 20 other classmates?
1
Thank you for this article! Highlighting and raising consciousness about the plight of our teachers, students and schools is imperative. We live in semi-rural New Mexico and see all of the issues mentioned here in spades. For me the elephant in the room is standardized testing though. This multi-billion-dollar per year industry syphons off an alarming amount of precious tax-payer dollars that belong in teachers’ pay checks and in the classrooms to enrich students’ experiences. It would be enlightening and beyond wonderful to see the New York Times do some in-depth journalism on this issue. How much money is spent on these tests state by state, what percentage of state budgets do they represent, which corporate pockets are being lined by the funds that belong to our teachers and children?
9
Please add consultants to the list also
Seems most of us are in agreement that this is outrageous and can’t continue.
So what do we need to do on a macro and micro level to help get our public schools the resources they need to help our country’s children succeed?
5
1.) Vote for Democrats.
Hold them accountable for raising taxes to fund high quality education for all children.
Hold them accountable for passing a budget that prioritizes children and a high quality education for EVERY KID IN THE STATE, not just for those lucky kids living in wealthy neighborhoods.
2.) Demand that your state govt think of new creative ways to fund schools. Using property taxes to fund schools bakes into school districts different school quality based on a kid’s parents’ income and property tax bill.
3.) Volunteer in the poorer districts that need more help. Mentor/ tutor kids in underperforming schools. Kids need lots of adults who care. It takes a village. Start a math or science after-school club.
4.) If you have a particular skill in the arts (visual arts— performing arts— music), offer to give lessons for free after school or on the weekends in poor schools. The arts are the first to go when budgets are slashed.
5.) Start a non-competitive running club in poor school districts. Helps focus and schoolwork, creates heathy lifelong habits, and makes kids feel better all around.
7
Any citizen can freely donate to any public school in America. It is amazing how few actually do that. Most citizens typically want their neighbors to pay more but not themselves.
1
wow thanks to all these dedicated teachers. ...my mom and dad both taught.
1
Charles Hibbard asks, "Do we really care about education in this country?" The Tax Reform and Jobs Act of 2017 answered the question. States with good schools were punished for having high school taxes. Apparently, at least the the Congress that sharply reduced SALT sees education as a luxury.
4
I was actually surprised at how good some of the salaries are for teaching.
3
One more indication that the 21st century will belong to Asia.
We abdicated our position, and that's our own fault. Our avarice, racism, violence and cult -like devotion to those with more money is bringing us down. But, I just don't think we deserve our position at the top. Perhaps when we get knocked down a few pegs we can invest less in the military and more on education.
6
The USA spends more per student than the vast majority of governments around the world [France, Canada, Germany...]. The fact that we get such miserable returns on an outsize investment is a more interesting question.
$49,900 with 10 years experience - Milwaukee Public Schools
1
So my daughter wants to go to college. She is at the top of her school in all subjects: science when Pluto was a planet, Clinton era American history, made up sonnets where pages have fallen out, and dodging warped flooring during PE.
Our legislators spurned our children, teachers, and parents to save face with corporate and oil elites.
I’m sad, furious, and desperate for my children.
4
If you care about education, stop voting republican. I was amazed when I read how many teachers in red states are registered republicans. If the teachers are that dumb/ignorant, it is no wonder students don't learn anything.
12
Imagine being a kid going to one of these schools. Imagine being a teacher trying to support a family on these salaries. Meanwhile, Trump's Budget Director estimated that that stupid military parade will cost between $10-$30 million. And this in a country that just passed massive tax cuts.
11
STOP TAKING MONEY OUT OF YOUR OWN POCKET. You are only masking the ge4avity of your situation. Until the parents/voters have it thrown in their faces, nothing will change.
4
i don't know about any of you, but I just sent that teacher in Tennessee some paint. unreal. this story made me want to vomit.
5
Please create a webpage or Instagram feed with all 4200+ submissions? This outrage deserves to go viral.
5
Is this the United States of Gadwana? You wonder why America if falling behind on Scholastic testing.
NO MONEY FOR SCHOOLS BUT NO LIMITS FOR ROCKETS AND OTHER WEAPONS !!!!And us French ,or whatever country it could be,we are blindly fellowing Trump to bomb an independant country only for the money of pipeline .WE ARE INSANE IN FRANCE TO FELLOW AN INSANE LIKE TRUMP
4
What you mean those aren't all faked fotos. From novockia or somewhere? Self respecting Americans treat their own kids like this.
Has anyone seen Betsy DeVos, U.S. Secretary of Education?
3
I'm not even American, but I despair for youngsters in the USA.
How will they make their way in the world if this is the nature of their schooling?
And politicians meanwhile spend their energies calling people "slimeballs".
2
I wonder if Betsy DeVoss had not been appointed if this would have come out and bern printed in The Times
Nothing like having a lightning rod political opponent to focus attention on a long term problem.
3
This is disgusting. My brother's 2 kids migrated here from US were having considerable difficulty in both English and mathematics. It surprised me to that kids from the USA would be having difficult. Now I can see why. When a country is absolutely bankrupt from the inside all they can do is show their superiority by sending missiles into other countries with whom they have no conflict. Get your house in order USA!
4
"Well, we should be funding and investing in students, not in school-- school buildings, not in institutions, not in systems."
-Betsy Devos, 60 Minutes, March 2018
1
Yep, so her solution is to siphon off money for religious & charter schools, which she thinks don’t even need to be held to the same minimum standard. Absolutely appalling.
America doesn't care. "We make war and eat our young," should be the motto emblazoned on the national currency.
3
Shame. Every American must feel crippling shame for having allowed this to happen. Yes, every one. There is no excuse. No one should be spared. You threw your children under the bus through neglect, apathy and plain old arrogance over being the 'no1' in the world. There really are third world countries that take better care of their kids. Shame.
HEY AMERICA, this is what harpoons when we keep electing the Republic Party.
2
What an absolute disgrace! That the supposedly "richest nation on Earth" invests so poorly in the education of our children says a lot about where our priorities are, and aren't.
What are the politicians and public officials such as Betsy DeVos doing? Either nothing, or worse than nothing. The Republican zeal for "cutting budgets" and slashing public spending has got to stop. It has done untold damage to generations of children. Shame on all of them!
VOTE THEM OUT OF OFFICE!
2
Republicans are the reason we can’t have nice things.
7
Republican governors and legislatures see a poorly educated electorate as a feature, not a bug. Tax cuts über alles!
5
Ah, yes. Well at least we can afford to bomb...wait, which country is it now?
1
if u r so worried about your classrooms and your students, switch to a 401k plan
1
Sorry teachers, this is your fault, too. Or it's the fault of your union. Anybody who has passed Accounting 101 can see that schools are in a hole of debt they can never get out of. Chicago Public Schools has $10 billion in assets and $25 billion in debts and unfunded pension liabilities on its balance sheet. 15% of the CPS budget goes to pensions and bond debt. Philly Public Schools has $2 billion in assets and $7 billion in debts. The assets consist of $600 million in cash and $1.4 billion in crumbling buildings (in need of $5 billion in repairs). Teachers' usual response to these numbers is "there is no pension crisis", or "we don't care about balance sheets" Caramba. Pensions need to be eliminated, along with the nearly free healthcare benefits that teachers get. If those perks are more important than new $100 textbooks and nice buildings, then do the best you can with 25 year old textbooks. Those pension debts will grow because of the faltering stock market, where your pension money is invested. I guarantee it.
Kids, it's your responsibility to study, even if your schools look like something out of that show "The 100". The adults failed you. If you need a textbook, then buy a used one on Amazon for $15. If you need music classes, there are piano tutorials on you-tube. You guys are computer crazy, so get out your phones and start educating yourselves.
3
So - elementary school kids can teach themselves math from an Amazon textbook. Youtube is just as good as a human being. Who knew?
Intelligence is Power. There is a problem at The Top: Not enough people are achieving The Brilliant IQ Score. Why? What's wrong with Harvard? Has it gone down hill? Well, the Brilliant IQ Score requires more education than the Genius IQ Score. They actually have to finish all 52 Grades of School. That means that people are about, at least 52 Years Old when they finish School. Dating is awful when you have to cancel, because of Homework. Especially when you are about 40 Years Old. So, they settle for less. Because how often does the news, these days it is called the media, talk about The Top Level of the Business World and The Top Level of Higher Education? Brilliant IQ People with fantastic School Report Cards... all 52 Grades worth? What do the Resumes look like, those that get those Top Jobs? Well, who cares! I'll settle for billionaire Facebook CEO, or White House President. You don't need a Top Level Resume for those jobs. But, I remind them: Intelligence is Power. ---- Thus, I think soon, it will be demonstrated how important Education is, and the millions of dollars in the bank account can't buy 1 IQ point more. That IQ point might be the difference between a Top Level Job, or Lower Level Job. Enjoy your Politicians spending money on junk. Enjoy your television. Enjoy your multi-million dollar military parade, Enjoy Enjoy Enjoy Enjoy Enjoy your lack of Power.
With its parody in the White House and growing rot in middle American educational standards we move closer to the edge every day.
1
If you want a stupid, untrained, uneducated, and unprepared population then we are doing it right. If you want something else, then you need to do something else. The blue states they are doing well, are getting ahead, are generating most of the money in America. That is because, for the most part, they invest in education.
Interesting fact: during the Reconstruction, more schools were built in the South than had been in the previous 100 years. And schools stopped being built as soon as Reconstruction ended.
6
Zero comments on this shocking and well-researched article! Is anybody listening? Does anybody care?
$200,000,000 in bombs last week.
3
Channeling my Inner Republican, I'd say: 'Mission Accomplished! Back to the Guilded Age. Tally-ho!"
I have been in education for close to 40 years in every conceivable role--classroom teacher, administrator, policy maker, curriculum developer, evaluator, instructional coach--and with each passing year I know less and less but in my soul I know that the following is true:
1. Teaching is at its essence a very lonely profession. That may seem odd for individuals who are surround by people all day long but a classroom teacher is not with his/her peers and is unable to share often with those who truly understand the immediate struggles and joys, what is gained and lost in the small moments. Any time with colleagues is rare and often not of their own design nor focused on what they need or want.
2. Increasingly we do not allow for risk or error both the cornerstones of true learning. When I began I was allowed to do both and both my students and I gained from my ability to create opportunities for us to fall down and learn how to get up again.
3. Teachers are asked to do more and more with less and less. Increasingly they are the 'lid holders' on a society that is boiling over. Students are in school for 35 hours a week--there are another 133 hours every week that teachers cannot control but somehow are expected to mitigate against the worst ravages of our society.
I would like to write more but it tells me that my comment is getting too long. I still see miracles happen. Teachers work miracles. contact me at [email protected]
6
Nearly 1200 comments about a salacious interview that pits one ex-director against the pathetic sexual predator we've put in the White House.
Zero comments about how badly we prepare our children - and our nation - for the future.
PATHETIC!
1
And yet this past weekend we (the USA) launched over 100 cruise missiles at Syria...at a cost of $1.4 million EACH!!!
That $140,000,000 could have bought textbooks, supplies, etc. for every school kid in this country. Instead, Trump and the Greedy Old Patricians played "Wag The Dog" in an attempt to keep anyone from focusing on his hookers, crooked lawyers and criminally incompetent cabinet.
Is this a great country...or what?
5
Betsy, where are you?
1
Shame, shame, shame on Congress and our horrible President!!
This has been going on at least since the early 1980’s. People stopped thinking about the ‘common good’ and the ‘social contract’ where the wealthy felt obliged to help those who were less fortunate. Reagan ushered in this way of thinking, and the novel notion that government was the enemy and less of it was better for America. Americans ran with it and started voting for all these crazy propositions that would lower property taxes and other state taxes. Local services, infrastructure, and the quality of education all declined. You get what you pay for.
Bring back communitarianism!
3
Stupid, short sighted, selfish men, run our nation and it is time to throw them out.
Our country has been going downhill since President Reagan and if we don't wake up to that fact our grand kids will have little left to eat, but be the pages of the sanctimonious prayers and invocations offered by our so called leaders.
These men in charge, like their predecessors, have done nothing but line their pockets and if we don't toss them out in November they will crumble our once strong nation.
It really is a rub that High School students have to lead us out of the swamp Mr Trump and all the cronies in Congress will never drain.
We have become a venal and ignorant people led by venal and ignorant men and unfortunately women who must know better.
Truly gross. Truly disgusting.
4
Let’s undo the recent “middle class” tax cut and spend the money on schools.
Let’s forego a couple of aircraft carriers and a few dozen fighter jets and spend the money on schools.
2
Or even add 1% back into the corporate tax rate and use that for schools. We all know that the middle class weren’t the ones to benefit, it’s the <1% at the to. Too bad we can’t get them to donate millions to schools rather than Super PACs.
I think you’ve done a great public service with this article - hold up a mirror and let America look at itself. We like to think we value kids but we don’t really.
When I went to high school in the 70’s, we were xeroxing pages of text books because we didn’t have enough to go around and we were supposed to be “the best high school in the city”. My old school district went under state management and may be headed back there again. When I learned my favorite teacher sent her kids to private school, I vowed if I ever had kids, they would not be in the public school system. It took a lot of sacrifice but I was able to do it. But I only had one kid. We have a system where inequality is built in since it is dependent on property taxes - schools in poor areas will stay poor and rich areas have to subsidize their schools (or go private). Thank god these teachers are waking up. Maybe they can wake the rest of us up, too.
4
This would be the other side the tax cutting we've embraced since the early 80s. 1 percenters keep more of their loot, so classrooms for non 1 percenter kids go without.
5
What a way to prepare this country for the future and economic competition in the 21st Century. We're number one!
2
A society that fails its children and teachers so spectacularly is a failed society. I have been lucky enough to travel extensively. In some of the most impoverished nations, the schools and the children are the highlight of the community. They school is the nicest, best kept building and the children are immaculately dressed (many in uniforms). The parents and community scrimp and save to make this happen. We, the richest country on earth, have to rigorously examine our priorities.
6
Infuriating, and heartbreaking. Teachers are heroines and heroes. Juxtapose this news story with that of Scott Pruitt's $43,000.00 phone booth. The cost of textbooks, art supplies, cleaning supplies, etc. should not be borne by underpaid teachers. An education in a safe space, and caring teachers who help instill a love of learning in children, are invaluable assets in helping young people to find purpose and meaning in life.
4
The US funds public schools are funded primarily based upon the wealth of local property owners. When we as a nation are ready to actually see the equality we have heard so much about, all public schools will be funded based upon our wealth as a nation. This should be at the very top of our agenda when the United States decides to put an end to institutionalized racism. Then the healing will begin.
3
3 or 4 years ago my daughter came home and told me she had a quiz on the 9 planets. I said there's only 8. she said Pluto is still on the list. I emailed the teacher telling her pluto was declassified as a planet in 2006. she replied that their textbook was older and still had pluto listed, so that's what she was teaching. I replied and asked if she could teach the students that the text was outdated and teach the true facts. I never received a reply. this year studying To Kill a Mockingbird, there's a line talking about how poor Atticus Finch was growing up and that before he could go to law school and practice law, he had to practice economy. teacher told the class that meant his job before a lawyer was being an economist, knowing how the economy worked. with teachers like this in the system, it doesn't matter how old the books are. end tenure now.
8
we aren't offering enough to attract or retain many people who can read, write, and do math.
2
Meanwhile, an audit of Army Contract Command found that family members of C-level staff subcontractors performing some sort of training effort in Afghanistan are being paid over $400,000 per year as "assistants" (with no evidence that any service was provided), tax payers are footing the bill for Porches, Alpha Romeos and a Bentley, and another $50 million may have been blown in other ways according to a report from Military Times published Saturday. Which brings us back to a sentiment made popular in the 1960s:
"It will be a great day when our schools get all the money they need and the air force has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber."
6
That's my biology book!
I'm 35.
3
So you can't afford to send your kids to private school, in the richest nation on earth? Why not use your tax relief windfall to benefit your childrens' education? After all they will need to grow up smart so they can afford to pay future taxes needed to pay the ballooning interest on the national debt.
1
Looking to protest? An NYC newspaper pointed out a real problem --
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/14/business/pension-finance-oregon.html
This is just like the Detroit bankruptcy -- too many financial promises, made by fools never held responsible for their obvious incompetence.
What never gets said: there is NOT a bottomless pit of money.
Someone has to be the adult .. no matter how many "protests" there are. Santa Claus is a myth, not a mayor, or governor, or president.
3
What so many posters here MISS is that the reason teachers have to buy pencils or paper, is that all the monies available went for their high salaries (yes, many DO make high salaries, even here!) -- luxe benefits -- early retirement -- long paid breaks and vacations -- Cadillac health insurance. There is nothing left for supplies nor repairs.
1
Not just budget cuts, but budget graft to GOP-friendly profit-driven "private", corporate-welfare "charter", and sky-fairy "parochial" schools. I hope that when the Sane-ami hits, we can finally reverse that and bring far, far more money back to these institutions and their teachers.
I worry about the recent DonorsChoose funding, which involved a cryptocurrency group. If the group is stressing power grids, especially Puerto Rico's, then it's robbing Peter to pay Paul and trying to buy a better image at the expense of non-"miners" who deal with enough power (and billing) issues when the weather *isn't* rough.
1
This is outrageous. Betsy DeVos, where are you? Politicians will rail about standardized test scores, yet be completely oblivious to the reality of what public school teachers are up against. It's disgusting.
4
This is the direct result of the Republican Party's absolute hatred of public education. They are to blame. Hold them accountable. NEVER EVER VOTE FOR A REPUBLICAN IF YOU WANT GOOD GOVERNMENT. If you vote for Republicans, you have no right whatsoever to whine about poor schools.
8
I'm currently working on a grant proposal to purchase educational materials for schools in Liberia. I could probably use a lot of the same text to write grants for schools here in the US. Liberia survived two civil wars and an outbreak of Ebola, what excuse do we have for the conditions in our schools? Forty years of tax cuts? This is pathetic.
246
The excuse is that we have a vast underclass that is actually not that different than what you encounter in Liberia. Swiss kids don't break their school's windows or clog the lavatories, but underclass Americans sure do.
2
This is true but not just "underclass Americans." Wealthier kids who attend public schools, few that do, also are inclined to destroy property that they perceive that belong to the poor.
Seriously, you're blaming the students themselves? The "excuse" is long-term underfunding and inadequate management at the federal, state and district level.
And it's not just "somewhere else"!
Take a look at the books that kids in NYC public schools routinely use--years old, often falling apart and tape-repaired, and in the case of some textbooks, also years out of date!
Not to mention many of the facilities and buildings! New coats of bright new paint, applied by the schools, can do only so much. And meanwhile, public schools are forced literally out of their own space by forced "resource-sharing" with FOR-PROFIT Charter Schools, who get the space for free. On one school, the school library was "temporarily closed" and the books stored offsite, and the library pressed into service as a temporary classroom.
WHY? Because Moskowitz, Inc. had been given dibs on so many spaces, the public school lacked classrooms! How much more basic can you get than classrooms?!?
5
O U T R A G E O U S !
I expect this of a third world country but not of America. We can not expect democracy to survive with so little support given to public education.
4
As bad as the plight is in the mainland US, why don't you take a look at Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands? The salaries are half what they are in the lowest paid US States plus there is no social security contribution or benefit !
Meanwhile the kleptocrats get whopping tax "reform".
7
Stop skimming PUBLIC tax funds off to charter and other private schools, and use them to fund the PUBLIC education they are intended for!
10
I'm a teacher and have been for the past 5 years. I've only taught in title I high poverty schools and worked with diverse groups of students. I love teaching and honestly believe America's commitment to public education system is our country's greatest achievement.
However, I think we've abandoned that commitment to public education for all - beginning with Brown v. Board in 1954 and then accelerating that abandonment during Reagan's presidency.
We're now at the point where it feels like public education has to justify its existence in order to receive funding and succeed. Many ignore systemic problems like high poverty schools and low teacher pay and offer band-aid solutions like Donors Choose or insulting pay raises.
So many of these comments offer a fatalism about our education system, but I honestly believe these problems are not endemic to public education. Committing ourselves to actually addressing our public education system - emphasizing equity, multiculturalism and bridging the opportunity gap - would lead to positive outcomes for so many of our students.
4
When will Americans stop electing these Republican officials that constantly take money from public schools?
2
Our local district recently hired a PR firm for about $275,000 to spin the news about how wonderful they are. The new Superintendent just spent thousands redecorating his office in the luxury office building the Administrators occupy. I don't think anyone knows what all those people in the building actually do. Not much! The school board spent a great deal of time in the last year agonizing about where people should go to the bathroom. The Teacher's Union runs the district. I can't imagine a bright person would actually work in that environment. Not many do. Teachers are paid what the market thinks they are worth. If the Education Departments could draw a higher quality of students - they can't- perhaps the taxpayers would be willing to pay more in teacher's salaries. Like most parents of high achievers, we never relied on the schools to provide basic education to our kids. That is the parent's job. Schools can supplement an education and can do a few things competently, but if you think all you have to do is get the kid to school and "education" is going to happen, you are likely to end up with a semi-literate High School grad like so many today who come out of this horrible system.
6
It seems there is a lot of echo here, but if we choose to ignore that pensions are eating up local budgets, there is too much administration, and that there is much theft in the system, more money will accomplish nothing.
5
Washington Post today has article on abuse of the schools by administration. NYTimes recently published good article on how pensions are destroying local government.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/stop-enrollment-fraud-d...
I live in Wilson, NC. Our schools do not have textooks. Only the schools in richer areas have computers that students can use. In some cases, parents buy them. A Spanish immersion program for elementary schools is being axed by legislators.
1
“Out of pocket expenses”? The system is supposed to buy the classrooms all of the materials they need. It is inexcusable that teachers have to provide kick-backs to the system to do their work.
If the schools need an infusion of more money, the parents should have the demand put on them to provide it for new textbooks, computers, etc. I doubt they’d agree to it, and changes might take place when protests reach the state level.
1
This series illustrates a point I've long been making: the US can either try to dominate the world ($700 billion this year), or we can take care of our own people. We cannot afford to do both. The connection between militarism and its costs are obvious, plain to see, and indefensible. Your call.
3
For many, many, many years anytime an article or discussion was had regarding school supplies, school facilities, new technology, having schools have the proper staff and resources and other related matters I have always heard and read, stated in the loudest and most forceful terms, that the children come first and the children are our future. It turns out that these were all lies.
4
Disgraceful, pitiful, unjust to the young people in public schools in our country, and the teachers who teach. And, to this, we have a Secretary of Education in the United States of America who seems clueless to the needs of children in public schools........who admitted on 60 Minutes recently that she has not yet visited what was termed a failing or struggling school, while devoting her minimal efforts solely to charter schools. Again, voting matters. Voting matters. Voting matters.
10
Why aren't parents marching on the city town hall and in the state capitals.
4
So disgusting and sad to see this. This from the " richest nation in the world." shame on everyone for letting this happen. And yes, you have all taken part through voting or not. I have never held our (Ontario, Canada) education system in very high regard but seeing this makes me re-evaluate what we have - well paid (overpaid by some accounts) teachers, ample support and supplies, EQUAL education for all. Can we do better? Absolutely, but you guys look like a third world country by comparison. Sadly, from where I sit, I don't see any hope of real change. Bravery required and not the hide behind Twitter kind.
5
This is disgraceful. Please include a list of how/where we can donate to these teachers wish lists.
7
DonorsChoose.org is VERY highly regarded. Teachers I know feel it is the best option to channel donor money directly to an identified need.
Staples and Target have periodic in-store opportunities for donations. Regional grocery chains and similar local entities - do similar things. I always encouraged that - because HEB Texas - would give me a lot on my asks for stuff.
And thanks for asking, I believe I speak for many teachers and kids, families.
1
Terrible and absolutely pathetic that the United States can not prioritize its education system and ensure it is fully funded and our children are receiving the skills and preparation they need to carry the future of this country forward. The current model of funding through local taxes is the heart of the problem. Our kids and our teachers deserve better.
3
Ah ha! This is how Trump got elected. A poorly educated populous results in a weak democracy, easily threaten by weak leadership.
6
Why spend on education when you can give $700,000,000,000.00+ to the military so we can build new beautiful smart bombs?
Trump and the Republicans fail to understand the importance of education without which the US would not have the ability to create these new beautiful smart bombs.
The future of this country and any country in general is directly related to the educational level of its citizens.
Something that is apparently foreign/alien to the Republicans. Look at the person we have as the head of Education in this country. Enough said.
4
In New Jersey, public schools are mostly funded by outrageous property taxes. The very wealthy towns pay the highest taxes and usually have the best schools. The poor towns have the least amount of money and support poorer preforming districts. The 21 counties in NJ are home to 590 districts in the state and each district fights for its own dollars. It’s separate but equall in the 21st century. To me it’s just another form on institutional racism where wealth and power determine outcomes of children. Why share when I can have all the toys?
11
Jim Florio, your Democratic governor from1990- 1994 tried his best to level the playing field and give all NJ kids the same decent high quality education. He took money from the wealthier towns to give to the poorer like Camden and Newark. The ‘Robin Hood’ governor was run out after one term for attempting to address this egregious issue.
Why can’t we be more like Finland where their constitution actually mandates that all Finnish children, regardless of parent’s income, receives the same very fine education?
As citizens, let’s demand change.
Vote in November.
5
It all begins with education. The US economy led the world because of its leadership in universal k-12 education. In the post WWII era tremendous funding for colleges and the GI Bill for tuition pushed that lead even further. But once the boomers had reaped the benefits of their subsidized education, they realized they could cut paying for education in taxes and make students borrow or do without. There is no paying your way through college with a part-time job anymore like there was in my day—tuition has skyrocketed as states cut spending. And not surprisingly, as our lead lead in education has fallen, so has our economic lead and in the world. You want a great America, it all begins with great education.
11
You can blame the Boomer Republicans in the national and state legislatures, but most Boomers are just average Joes whose first job opportunity was fighting in Vietnam or fighting to avoid it. And then came Reagan, who a majority of Boomers actually voted against. If it'll make you feel better, wait another 5-10 years and there will be Boomers with cardboard signs on every street corner in America.
Nah, they'e already voted themselves property tax exemptions so they can age in place on their pensions w/medical.
I don't know enough the school districts portrayed here, but - are these all low-income areas? I grew-up in a solidly lower middle-class commuter suburb of Atlanta, and I just don't remember things being this bad (And I'm still in my 30s, so it wasn't a century ago). We didn't have a swimming pool or a plush track, but I don't remember falling-apart buildings or woefully outdated textbooks. It wasn't grand, but it was basically fine. Again, this was a somewhat lower middle class area.
1
There is no excuse for worn out, obsolete textbooks or poorly maintained buildings. In a typical school district, buildings, books, and other equipment account for no more than 15-20% of the budget. (The rest goes to salaries.) Unfortunately, books and buildings aren't unionized so they get short shrift when teachers demand higher pay. After complaints from rural school districts about old school buildings, the state of Ohio funded newer schools for most rural districts. Of course, that didn't change education much, nor did it decrease demands for more money from the state. The solution to poor school infrastructure is to fund it separately, so it can't be raided to pay salaries.
1
Deplorable.
I assume that the funding level is due to local and state sources and not federal. The article should have addressed this aspect. Not sure of what happened to 'no child left behind' (Bush) or in fact what the Obama administration did to improve the situation.
As for the disparity in salaries state to state, well I guess I leave that up to the school districts.
Finally the parents must not be looking at the conditions of their children's schools. And that is part of the problem.
I teach at a title one public school down the street from a large social media company’s headquarters. My district currently is facing a significant fiscal deficit. Most of the supplies in the classroom come either from my own pocket or my mom’s, or from various Donor’s Choose projects and grants. The facility itself is not great- while neighboring schools have air conditioning and filters, I don’t even have windows that open. Several years ago, an improperly bolted piece of heavy equipment came undone while I was teaching, resulting in a traumatic brain injury to myself. What saddened me more than the damage to my physical health and personal life was the thought of what might have happened to one of my students if it had hit them and not me. School facilities are a concrete, visible indicator of how much a community and state prioritizes their children.
4
Teachers in the US who are tired of this ongoing battle (lack of resources, subpar benefits and pay, etc) should look into international teaching.
Many don't know there's a world out there for experienced and qualified teachers. Often people think this means teaching English in some foreign school system, but there are K-12 expat schools all over the world, schools where you can teach in your area of expertise. These schools typically pay well and many have great benefits. How does annual flights home, moving allowance, and a housing stipend sound? That is, of course, on top of affordable health insurance which can include worldwide coverage. Longing for paid professional development? All of these schools have some sort of fund for PD. Every year, people at our school are allotted money for PD. I met expats teaching in different parts of Africa at a conference in Germany, all expenses paid by their schools.
My wife and I moved from NYC (where the pay and benefits are pretty great thanks to the strong union) to the Netherlands and have been here for 6 years. Our son was born here, many families live this life, it's not impossible or crazy by any means. So, if you are tired of fighting the good fight, want to teach instead of finding ways to teach, and want an adventure, try international teaching.
If you want to keep up the good fight, that is very commendable. And I am happy to see the recent protests across the nation, but recognize meaningful change is far off.
4
What you don't mention is that those schools require a two-year commitment at least. And that you only have one trip home per year. It's great if you're young and single, or newly married as you clearly were, and not afraid of a major change. I've had friends who have done this, and I've been approached more than once to teach at an international school. And I had a roommate who moved here from the Philippines to teach. It's not an impossible or crazy choice, but neither is it simple or a snap to move thousands of miles from home and adjust to a new culture. Especially if you have established ties or young children. It's a major life adjustment, and you're being far too glib about it.
Hello Karen,
Glib? Hardly, I am highlighting the positives of a possibility not many are aware of. I also state that it is for people who want an adventure. Uprooting isn't easy, but is living at the poverty level or working a second job as a teacher "easy"? Working for 10 years without a single raise, is that easy? I'd say teaching abroad can be much simpler that dealing with such complexities that most teachers deal with every year in the US. Also, this really isn't a young person's game as you suggest. You only have to be brave and willing to take a risk. Yes, you have a contract, but that is a positive, isn't it? Seeing as many teachers have no such protections in the US.
I'd say really that the only negative to teaching abroad is you are leaving a system behind that needs advocates for change.
I agree leaving to teach in international schools is not an easy decision but after 9 years of teaching math for public high schools in the “Blue” states of Oregon and California my wife and I decided to to give our son a better education than what US public schools currently provide. My wife and I have Masters degrees and yet we would never be able to afford sending our son to a private school in the US on a public school teacher’s salary. So 13 years ago, after my math classes in an Oregon public high school had reached over 40 students, the local population had voted down a bond measure for schools twice and my son’s kindergarten teacher struggled with her own large class sizes, we decided to leave to teach overseas.
It was a difficult decision for my wife and I to leave my adult stepdaughter at the time but my son received an excellent education from teachers in international schools in India, Indonesia and Romania who had small class sizes and the support to deal with his ADHD. He graduated with a highly regarded International Baccalaureate Diploma.
From this article I can see it still doesn’t matter whether a state is “Red” or “Blue”, Americans are still not willing to fund public schools adequately. To this day I feel lucky that I had the opportunity to move overseas to pursue a better education for my son and better working conditions for myself and any personal costs were worth it. The costs to the US of not funding public schools adequately will be much higher.
1
We are in Austin Independent School District (AISD). We were absolutely shocked at the condition of the schools when we first saw them. Temporary classrooms a truly permanent here. About half the students at his school are in temporary classrooms. He's been in them since 4th grade.
We also have to provide his school supplies with the exception of school books. When teachers run low, they ask parents to purchase more and send them in with their kids.
One advantage of an experienced teacher is they have built their personal libraries and other teaching materials. My son's language arts teacher has an enormous library and she lets the kids borrow them. New teachers haven't had the opportunity to build libraries.
We are lucky that we are in AISD. It looks as if things are much worse elsewhere. I am continually concerned that my son will not learn to write by the time he gets to college. I will ensure that this does not happen if I have to teach him, myself.
1
Texas state standards for writing are not adequate preparation. Even the most dedicated teachers struggle with that pressure on how and what they teach. Advocate for him to take AP classes. I know I had to reteach against the state standards when I taught AP History. And AP is not just for gifted and talented, parental advocacy and a decent scholastic record, should open that door.
1
Classroom and textbook conditions like these send the message to students that their education isn't important. It's a sin and a shame in America in 2018 that we place such little importance on education, and on our young people.
3
My mother and my aunts were teachers, my husband's aunt was a teacher and my sister is a teacher. Neither my sister's sons nor my daughters will even consider the profession. And people wonder why.
1
Our son’s beloved tutor Matt left the educational field because he had no hope of paying off $70,000 worth of student loans on his California teacher’s salary. He was an experienced special education teacher who also tutored on side to make ends meet. He also organized children’s activities and support programs for our local church. He is now working for a iCloud Technology company designing and conducting industry training programs. We are happy to see him thrive in a field that pays him well for his talents and skill in the classroom with adults. It’s a pity that his classroom work with special education children wasn’t considered as valuable. We have since hired another struggling teacher to tutor our son on his reading and writing skills. We have been delighted with their progress this year. We secretly wonder how long this wonderful tutor will be able to hold on before he too is forced to switch to a more stable and profitable career.
1
There is no middle-class in this country without functioning public educational system. What we have allowed to happened to public education is simply an attacked on the middle class.
5
This breaks my heart, so depressing. I'm embarrassed by my country, it was once one of the greatest in the world and look how we've declined. So sad, hard to fix, where to start? A good start would be to repair the education system. In Switzerland, teachers make more money than nurses. Both should be well compensated.
The situation seems to be the "new norm", much like our nation's administration. Is the USA spiraling downward into a 3rd world country? Oh my, help us.
1
Two things of note. One, the male teachers' salaries are about twice the female teachers' salaries (extrapolating years of experience, degrees, location, as much as I can). Two, I don't want to see another article WITHOUT the following questions posed: Are you regularly voting Republican? Do you understand that tax cuts in your state, promoted by Republicans, have damaged your state's ability to provide more for you and for your students? Do you understand that unions are your friends? Are you going to vote for people who actually CARE about education, both in state contests as well as federal contests?
4
Every single one of these stories is a national outrage. That any child, anywhere in the country, has to go to school conditions pictured is ridiculous for the so called “greatest country in the world”. A great country would tax its citizens sufficiently to have reasonable facilities and supplies for their kids learning. But Republicans in most of the states identified here don’t get that government has obligations that require tax revenue. You can’t have minimal tax burdens if you want schools, cops, roads etc. Democrats aren’t off the hook either, as poor neighborhoods in urban areas are treated no different than the rural south, as the Providence example shows. It’s time to stop this, the more kids we properly educate, the better this country will be.
3
We claim to care about education, but we don't. The US is the only industrialized country where schools are local matters dependent on local taxes and where the federal government has little control over education, despite what conservatives believe. Rural areas, especially down south, in large part because of their anti tax attitude, have suffered from schools that lack good teachers and materials, the same school district that spends 20 million on a new sports stadium has 1 science lab for 2000 students, others have no labs. Worse, we have Trump Nation with their idea that somehow having an education, of being education, is 'elitist' or worse, a threat to something.
Of course, for politicians lack of education is a wonderful thing, to quote one old guard politician "Why do I want my people educated? They get educated, they won't vote for me". Think about Texas banning curricula around critical thinking and you have the idea. An education that depends on the wealth of your parents for how good it is is not public education, it is not what it is supposed to be. Yep, the 3r's crowd sees the cost of education as all those darn teacher's union, but the reality is you don't get good results without paying for it (it is true, on the other hand, that a lot of money doesn't necessarily solve problems either), you don't get a 21st century education by scrimping on education.
2
This is simply unacceptable.
So glad I my kids went to public school here in Canada, where the education system is rated up there with Singapore and Finland, despite Canada's large immigrant population and lack of a federal education program: http://www.bbc.com/news/business-40708421
2
I bring outreach programs into ~40 public schools in Baltimore City each year where the kids can’t drink from the water fountains because there is lead in the pipes. In the bathrooms there are no paper towels, no soap, insufficient toilet paper, and doors without locks. Last week a pipe burst in the school’s bathroom and a geyser was gushing filth. This is on top of not having adequate heat, air conditioning, and supplies, and their computers are old and too few in number. For too long our schools have been underfunded. And in the case of Baltimore, district and school staff have already been laid off, and there isn’t much left to cut. It’s really a depressing situation because I know this is the way it is all over the country. We say that the kids are our future, but we don’t show them we mean it with our actions.
On a more positive note, I am excited because one dilapidated school in Baltimore was closed by the district and replaced with a brand new, beautiful school (Dorothy I. Height Elementary School). Others are in the works as part of a funding package secured some years ago. But many more exist that need repair or replacement. Also, in this high-poverty district all children now receive free meals in school so they can learn without being hungry! Support your public schools!!!
2
Dear teachers, Please make a plan to vote each and every November until you get the funding you need. If those currently in office are neglecting our teachers and schools, elect different people. Bring a friend to the polls and make a change for your community.
We need more and more pictures like these. It should be a weekly feature. Otherwise we just don't get it. Without pictures, the teachers, on whose backs we are making this all disgraceful situation work, will continue to labor without all they need to educate and our children will continue to be shortchanged.
2
I never even sniffed 100K as a professional in both accounting and engineering, getting that much for being a public teacher is obscene. Not to mention I bet they get a pension which I never got either.
4
Do you work in a large northeastern city? Cost of living is very different from place to place. A job where I grew up in Arizona pays ~ double here in NYC. There aren’t too many accountants in New York or Boston making less than six figures. Maybe you should ask for a raise?
1
Why do you believe teachers should be valued less than an accountant or engineer? Teaching requires a a Bachelor's or Master's degree in education in order to be a public school teacher. These are highly educated professionals educating children so they can be productive, hardworking, adults with critical thinking skills. I'd argue that they should be paid $200k and treated like royalty.
1
Quality public schools create the consumers that make your employment possible. Everyone who complains about paying for public education should remember that. Without a strong educated workforce, the middle class disappears. And then who needs an engineer or an accountant anyway?
1
What is wrong with us? Some people from the areas with horribly underfunded districts voted for a president who would spend billions on a vanity wall. But the problem exists all over the country, except in districts where there is sufficient local income to support local school property taxes. Or where we have seen, well to do residents can afford to provide additional support.
We have gone up and down and p agains in terms of the national eonomy. ehat distresses me is that when we are constantly hearing that corporations and top earners have more wealth than ever know before - crucial public services like schools - are dying from underfunding. We are allowing the country to deteriorate, bridge by bridge, school by school, child by child.
3
What an emabarassment.
Too bad Betsy DeVos doesn't give a whit about public education.
7
We ask teachers to educate our children. We expect teachers to pick up where parents leave off for whatever reason. We disparage teachers for not working during the summer months when kids are out of school. (I know quite a few teachers who do work every summer as lifeguards, camp counselors, pool directors, tutors, etc.) We tell ourselves that teachers have it easy because they get out of work at 3:00pm.
What no one seems to consider is what goes on after school when teachers are on their own time. Reading and grading essays. Grading and correcting exams. Going over or creating lesson plans. Worrying about that child who looks as if he's been abused, or the one who may need to be tested for a learning disability, or how to tell a parent that her daughter is failing math.
We are showing our basic disrespect for teachers and education and children when we don't fund it properly. How do we expect children to learn and teachers to educate if the books are outdated and the building is falling down? Or is it that we just don't care? As long as we disparage teachers we will not attract the best and the brightest, poor children will receive poor educations, and the cycle of poverty will never end.
If education is the key to success all schools should be in excellent shape and all teachers above average.
9
It is so sad to read these stories. I was under the illusion that things had gotten better since I taught in the 70's in Chetopa, KS. I was hired to teach middle school science with text books that were copyrighted in 1959. The text discussed going to the moon! By the time I was using these books, we'd been to the moon and back. There was not one piece of science equipment in the entire middle school. I was extremely fortunate as the faculty at Labette County Junior College generously shared their equipment with me which I transported back and forth throughout the year. The superintendent who hired me was new and was making good changes. Hope he continued to be successful. I now live in Washington and we have phenomenal public schools in our community. I wish all communities could be so lucky.
3
Coming from a public school in an very poor district in rural KY these images bring back memories. At the time I assumed the conditions were normal as I did not know anything to differ. The teachers were amazing and worked very hard to help give us the best possible chance to escape and prevail within the workforce. To this day I am eternally grateful and can remember every single teacher K through 9 that helped me along my childhood path toward adulthood success.
My mother retired from teaching within the same district and recalls spending $2-$3K a year to help students with school supplies, educational trips, as well as nourishment. The amount does not account for her fuel expenses to travel students to and from study sessions and work programs. Her earnings at retirement were almost $45k; she had a rank 1, masters, and a doctorate degree but insisted on staying in the county to help those who could not help themselves.
4
I just retired after teaching 12 years in the public schools in one of the wealthiest counties in our country. Most of the schools have old trailers. Mold and roach problems are widespread. In order to save money, our heating and cooling has been outsourced to a Texas company which turns off airconditioning all summer, when 95 degrees with 90 percent humidity is common - no wonder we have mold. Many of my students had medical flags for asthma. This fall I was assigned to a room with no windows and a 17 year old carpet glued to asphalt tiles. The humidity never dropped below 70%. On the advice of the union, I filed an ADA request with a doctor's signature asking for a HEPA filter and dehumidifier, and never got either. This is a human rights issue, not a disability issue. The health effects of two months in this room are probably permanent. The only bright spot is that the students were taken to another room when I left.
3
I can completely relate to the educator's stories presented. I spend hundreds of dollars each year on tissues, Expo markers, and pencils, not the most exciting materials. I have no context for working in a well-funded public education system and wonder what that would even look like. Public education is supposed to be the great equalizer, which I wouldn't work in a public school if I didn't believe this. I am extremely frustrated by the choices that state legislatures make to cut funding for schools as the stakes for teaching get higher and higher. I question the intention behind these plans and the real goals of these legislators. As I have been following the teacher strikes and walk-ins around the country, I see some comments that complain that teachers shouldn't make this about money. Well, it's about money. We have a teacher shortage in Colorado and with our continued shrinking budget, a plan to turn our pension into a 401K (and raise the retirement age), I wonder who even wants to become a teacher anymore? I love what I do, love working with my students, and the people I work with, but it's time for a change. I am glad to see that educators are standing up for their students and ourselves.
2
I feel sorry for those poor teachers shown pictured joyously opening their new printer because soon it will be out of ink and HP will have them over a barrel and Donors Choice will have already praised itself for their benevolence and moved on. When they have to pay for the ink themselves at Staples they won't look so happy then.
1
A well funded, deliberate destruction of public education by the GOP for the last few decades while providing tremendous tax cuts and handouts to the corporations and very wealthy.....the very definition and example of how money is being transferred from the lower classes to the top. If you can't afford a private, for profit education in the "new" right wing Koch, DeVos and McConnell America, your opportunities to move up the economic ladder will be limited to Walmart and McDonalds. And folks, that is exactly what they want.
10
So how do I help address this issue? Besides indirectly helping through voting, how can I directly help some of the teachers featured (and their classrooms). This is great for drawing attention, and we can talk ad nauseam about the myriad factors that have created this disaster, but please also give us links so that we can act. I can’t do anything about a leaky roof, but I can definitely donate.
Please make this a feature of the article, not something I have to locate in the comments section. You give me links to SNL, I should be getting them here too.
8
Much as I appreciate the desire to help thru donations, I have to wonder if that’s the right response. Public school funding should NOT be supported by private citizen donations. It is a fundamental right for all people to be provided a quality education by the state. Especially in a society as wealthy as this one. By giving privately you are not fixing the underlying basic problem.
1
Head over to donorschoose.org. You can generally search in your area code to support a project nearby.
2
Special thanks to all those who regularly shred America's social contracts for isolated, personal profiteering on a selfish, 'my generation' level, leaving the future out in the cold without socks, shoes or books.
1
Shame on all of us US for letting this happen.
Businesses complain they have to bring in foreign workers because US workers don't have the "right" skills. Why? Because we as a society don't care enough to educate ALL our children. We gut education and then complain about not having the "right skills?"
There are too many untapped brilliant minds among the majority who can't afford to send their children to Private schools.
Looking at what we are giving our teachers -- the men & women we ask to prepare our children for the future and teach them basic skills -- makes me sick to my stomach.
This is what "privatization" has done. It's wrong.
For every penny of funds siphoned off by private schools, 20 children (likely more) do without because "there's no money for that" -- it was all taken by the private sector for their profit. There's no public benefit. It's all about greed.
For every $1 dollar given to any private school on any voucher program, $20 should be given to the public school that is being sapped of funds by that very same voucher program. And the parents who are so well off they can afford private school should be required to pay additional taxes to support their Community public school.
Used to be entire communities wanted all the children get to know each other and be educated -- the one-room schoolhouse. Now, apparently, a good education is only for the rich and advantaged.
That is wrong. Every child should have a chance. Each and every one.
3
I am a French American living in Rio de Janeiro for the past four years. I have seen schools JUST LIKE THESE in Rio. HOW on earth can we have schools in the USA in such pathetic circumstances? WHY in the world should teachers have to use their OWN money to buy supplies? Please teachers - strike strike strike. The whole country will be behind you. Many of us had NO IDEA schools were so terribly neglected in the USA. And Trump increases the Military budget?? The only way forward in this world is education education education. Look how France strikes, follow their lead, it works.
2
I sent the link to Paul Ryan. Cutting taxes with government services at this level is unconscionable. The founding fathers wrote extensively about the importance of an educated populace for democracy. Public education is one of the key founding principles of our country. Our government leaders should be ashamed. Our country will be in decline for decades if not permanently from our lack of appreciation and investment in education.
Schools have always been one of the lowest entities on the totem pole when it comes to funding. But that is not the real problem. The real problem is the adults are too busy voting themselves a lifestyle that they cannot afford. This is where all of the money really is going. Bloated benefits, retirements, and public payrolls. Expensive and questionable public works. All the while demanding low taxes and voting out anyone who does not give them what they want. This came about during the 60's and 70's when politicians realized they could buy votes using deficit spending, proclaiming there is nothing wrong living beyond your means.
2
This is one of the saddest features you have run in years. I have one child in public school; it is constantly strapped for resources, and lacks many of the basics you'd expect in a modern education system. The public school system should be an examplar of American excellence. Instead it's being destroyed through a combination of political stalemate, apathy, and an acceptance of permanent income inequality. We can and must do better for all students and their educators.
2
Gee, so why is that private schools already supported by private wealth (as they should be) do better? And why would we permit people like Betsy DeVos steal even more funding and support from the public schools to give to the private schools?
1
Terrible. I am 35 years old and that Biology textbook cover looks all too familiar to me.
I believe the democratic party was in office for 16 of the past 24 years?
4
Where? Education is funded and controlled at a state/ local level. congress has little say in education.
1
School funding is mostly about what happens in the state houses, county governments, and municipalities. In the cases of the states with GOP majorities, taxes and associated school funding have dropped...not so in states run by the Dems.
1
It has more to do with state and local funding than federal. And, for your information, most of these failures are in RED states. Those are definitely NOT Democratic controlled states. Duh !
When I learned my Super of Schools had gone on all expense paid trips funded by one of this nation's biggest text book publishers, I emailed him and reproached him for this bad judgement and said if he bought textbooks from this company, he was looking at a corruption investigation. He did NOT buy any textbooks while he was Super, so for that I am sorry?
https://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/02/education/inquiry-into-school-officia...
1
Talk is cheap. We say we care about our kids but I guess not. These teacher comments also explain why very few of the best and brightest become teachers. Richest country in the world. Tax cuts in the billions. Under resourced schools and crumbling infrastructure. A recipe for failure. And yet the same set of pathetic leaders get reelected by an electorate that is endlessly jacked up over social issues.
2
As a recently retired teacher (32 years in K-12) I now can appreciate my district a bit more after reading the comments from all over the nation!
Yes, my classroom looked just like the classroom photo in the comments (25 year old desks and all) , and our salaries are comparable, but because of dedicated staff members who spent hours of their own time writing and pursuing grants, each of our more than 800 students, most living at the poverty level and the majority ELL’s, has a chrome book to use in class. Teacher/ administrator efforts at our school also provided staff with numerous trainings to match the resources we have access to. However, the skills needed, daily pressures, and responsibilities of teaching are not compensated competitively. We have many of the “best and brightest” on our staffs, but there are also many excellent would-be teachers who look at salaries in the tech fields, as well as other business opportunities, and realize that they will have a better chance to use their talents and multiple degrees in jobs that pay enough to actually adequately support a family at a level of comfort that is not paycheck to paycheck. Teachers with masters degrees and multiple trainings know exactly what the top salary will be no matter how hard they work! In the private sector, if u work as hard as teachers and principals work every school day, along with the inherent responsibilities managing classrooms and staffs, you could end up a billionaire!
The public schools in Montgomery County MD bear no resemblance to this education system. Why is that?
1
Montgomery County is wealthy with really high property taxes? Or was that rhetorical?
Good gracious - if Kentucky had real sex education, they would not need a "Westport Teenage Parent Program (TAPP), an alternative high school in Louisville for pregnant girls and teen moms." Abstinence education only will make us lose a generation of girls who are punished by adults who act as morality enforcers. Backwards indeed...
2
Comprehensive sex education includes the choice to become a teen parent, as well as how to prevent pregnancy. Everyone deserves an education no matter their personal choices...
It's all going to start trickling down any minute now, right? I mean consistently adopting policies designed to advantage the wealthy is going to help us all, right? Any day now--since about 1980.
Robust pubic education used to be one of America's main advantages: congratulations, conservatives. You've run it into the ground and Trump is your standard bearer.
5
Hi, could I have contact for the teacher which needs books for library? I believe we here in NY are more fortunate and could help with books? Thank you
3
I am heartsick after reading this article. Twenty-five year old biology textbooks? Think of all the advances that have been made. We do our children and our country a grave disservice when we do not adequately fund education.
I have many friends who are teachers and they are some of the most underpaid and overworked people I know, with an accompanying level of responsibility that many don't understand or appreciate.
It's time for a change.
1
The school in Providence, RI caught my eye. I used to live there and I vividly remember the city of Providence begging Brown University to pay taxes.
They refused year after year. I’d like it to be noted that Harvard donates millions every year to the city of Boston. Universities must be taxed. I can’t believe what they get away with.
3
My daughter is in 10th Grade English Honors here in NJ. Her "Grapes of Wrath" book is from 1947. Some of her other literature books are equally as old, missing chapters or the pages are stuck together. She reads what she can and goes online to decipher the rest.. Here is the kicker - there is a smart board in every classroom (rarely used) and the cooking classroom is world class with 3 TV's, a smart board and a security system to protect the equipment. This classroom rivals the best commercial kitchen you have ever seen. Priorities....
3
Our education system has guaranteed a continuing supply of service level workers for fast food chains, and little else.
If there is a "deep state" at work, it must be our Senators and Representatives at both the State and Federal level working to destroy public schools in America - leaving only those who can afford the Betsy DeVoss plan to prosper. What for the rest? The Ghost of Education Present (with apologies to Dickens) is here to haunt us for certain.
4
I am not trying to be facetious (or sanctimonious) with this suggestion, but try contacting the university systems in your state for used and possibly stored equipment and materials.My daughter went to a school with a newly renovated science lab. The only problem was that it was an empty room; no equipment, supplies, etc. I found out that the university system had warehouses where they stored "out of date" equipment and glassware, things that were still usable. It generally sat forgotten for years until it was discarded to make room for more. We were able to "purchase" it for a few cents, or were given it just to make space. For a couple of hundred dollars provided by the PTA we turned the empty room into a functional, if not modern, science lab.
3
I used to go to a high school in the top corner of West Tennessee. Ceiling tiles used to randomly fall from the ceiling, there was mold covering the tiles in many rooms, and there wasn’t heat. The school used to operate using a boiler system to heat the building, and it still used it when I was attending the school about four or five years ago. There were days in winter when school got canceled because it was just too cold and all the pipes were frozen. The plumbing caused the school to close for days at a time as well. There usually weren’t enough books for the whole class, so a lot of times we had to share them in class. If we needed to take one home, we had to “check it out” with the teacher and make sure to bring it back the next day. If we were reading a novel in class, it was usually played as an audio book because only half the class had a book to read from. The bathrooms had half stall doors, so people could walk by and almost make eye contact with you as you were using the restroom. The whole building smelled moist. Regardless of the condition of the building, a nice handful of the teachers were passionate about the students, and they truly cared about our success. I still talk to some of the teachers I had freshman year, and one of them gave me several books he bought out of pocket. Teachers need more budget raises, salary wise and school supply wise, especially in rural Tennessee.
1
I have to ask what students are learning from 25-year-old biology textbooks that will help them understand the world or get them into college.
If parents were raising their children in spaces that looked like some of these schools, child protective services would be all over them. If kids must be in school, it should be a place that is safe for them and includes the necessities to learn.
I'm shocked that parents whose children go to these schools wouldn't be up in arms. Here in Canada-land education taxes are a line-item on our property taxes.
2
Teacher pals, just FYI: I have sets of novels, etc. (@ 15 books per title), that I purchased with a grant. The students in my secondary English methods class at the University of Northern Colorado wrote lessons for the books as text sets (canonical titles, graphic novels, and YAL). I gladly send them to teachers to borrow for as long as they need them, And I send the lessons, too. No strings. I have a list... it might help a little. Find me on the University of Northern Colorado site, in the English Dept (rather than publish my email here).
3
A nation that can find the money to buy the latest weaponry but can’t find the money to buy new textbooks and basic classroom supplies is a nation that has nothing to defend with that weaponry. We will be buried by nations that truly care about educating their future citizens.
10
So sad - that was my biology textbook in 9th grade (back in 1992). Education and healthcare should be the highest responsibilities for our government - not finding more ways for corporations to get breaks!
4
Let's not even think about making America great again with schools like these. Somehow, we always have enough money for new military hardware to defend these lovely schools.
2
If shifting the children of the top 20 percent of wealth Americans from public to private charter schools is the national goal, as it is with the Republican Party, then deteriorating public schools is an irrelevant issue and merits the minimal amount of money that government can spend.
The Hard Right has taken over the GOP and these are their policies and these are the outcomes. If anyone wants to make a change in these policies then the leadership of this generation of Republicans must be overthrown and Democrats need to be put in charge of public education for a generation or so.
4
A few years back Los Angeles voters approved a huge bond to fix the schools that were falling apart. The district then used the bond money and purchased ipads instead. Look up the LAUSD ipad scandal. End of the day the schools were never fixed, ipad were paid for but never used, the tax payers are on the hook for the bonds and no one went to jail. However I'm relieved to see that the district folks that did this went on to high paying jobs with a big tech company as well as the educational software company that was going to be used on the ipads. Enough said.
9
It is so sad for me to read this article. We have some similar issues here, although not as desperate yet. It is absolutely clear that education is the key to progress, prosperity, and a good life for our children. And it is the real key to competitiveness with the rest of the world.
My daughter's high school (a magnet HS in Philadelphia) draws students from every zip in the city, has more than 70% of the kids with free or reduced price lunch, and 99% going on to 4 year colleges. Our Home & School raises $150K annually to cover the cost of one admin person, to use Rosetta Stone to teach Spanish III to more than 100 kids because the district won't give us a Spanish III teacher, fund all the sports teams (we don't have gym in our building) and the clubs, help teachers buy classroom needs. This year, personally, I have sent cases of copy paper, tissues and hand sanitizer to school because the school budget could not cover them. Our fundraising is a bit off this year and I live in fear that we won't have enough money to buy back a teacher who may be cut from our budget over the summer. It has to end. We need to fund our urban education systems. The Lower Merion School District - only a few suburban miles away, spends 3x as much per student but the big difference is our kids are low-income and of color. The education color gap needs to be closed and universal funding for all districts has to happen.
4
Why in the world do they still use hardcover textbooks? Why can't a school system pass out $50 Kindles and provide the content without charge to the students? It would be much cheaper and far more efficient than hardcovers which are basically so 15th century . Too many people feeding at the Public school textbook trough, I guess.
I do agree with you but, the cost of internet and wi-fi can be prohibitive. Licencing fees for e-textbooks is also high and has to be renewed every year.
1
Probably because kindles weren't around 20 years ago when they last bought the textbooks these kids are using
And yet guns will be provided to safeguard the kids, really? Perhaps rusty civil war muskets.
4
I once asked the school secretaries where I could find the supply room. They looked at me as though I had two heads.
I later learned it was located in my pants --my wallet!
3
These States, most of which are in the South, should be totally ashamed of themselves for the deplorable conditions of their schools and the little salaries paid to teachers. These same States brag about low taxes, yet their poor children suffer and grow up ignorant and unprepared for a 21st century world. They are in fact living in third world conditions.
1
Don’t worry. The rich kids in those states do just fine.
1
First, most usually means more than half and 3 of the 10 schools are in the south if we're generous and include Oklahoma.
Second, what I found most despicable is that a teacher in Boston, teaching down the street from some of the most fashionable restaurants in the city and homes that cost a minimum of 7 figures has to make desks for his students. Before you point your finger at other people telling them that they should be ashamed, perhaps you should fix your problems at home first. There's more than enough to be ashamed of in your own back yard.
1
Of all the articles I have ever read in NYT, this is perhaps the most heartbreaking and unsettling I have ever read.
America is mortgaging (has mortgaged) its future. It's no wonder people can't discriminate between fact and fiction when a large majority receives public education characterzed by the abysmal conditions for both teachers and students.
Shame, shame on the legislators that have perpetrated this crime... You should all all crawl back under the rocks from which you have crept.
5
Its only going to get better as the tax cuta decimate budgets
2
It is pathetic. Red states in particular spend millions on lawyer firms to pass stupid laws on abortion, yet, they will fight to keep from spending on children. Republicans must fear that if people are educated, they will vote Democratic. The Governor of Oklahoma, Mary Fallin, once said in an interview, when asked why schools weren't equipped to withstand tornadoes, she replied because that is a "local thing". The state really shouldn't get involved". Really? Yet, she allows fracking across the state which destroys peoples' homes who cannot afford to rebuild or repair because of the poverty level in OK. Why can't oil companies be asked to help? God forbid. What about the millions and time spent by her state legislature on absurd abortion bills? She is a typical red state governor.
2
You get what you pay for...
2
A country that fails to invest in education is a write-off.
2
Another reason not to have children!
2
Reality check but schools have best politcans money can buy ,why do people complain about what kids go with out?
That doesn’t even make sense. Schools don’t have politicians.
1
America is an anti-intellitual country that cares more about school sports than learning. Nothing will change.
6
Shameful, but no surprise. Then the Republicans will complain our schools are performing poorly and divert ever more of our tax resources to for profit DeVos charter schools.
3
This article made me cry.
3
And where is this outrageous attack on public education by far the worst and most shameful - Republicans held states - surprised?
1
A national disgrace.
3
I’d like the reporter to ask Betsy DeVos if she read this and ask for her comments.
2
Simply shameful.
1
And the liar just gave away huge tax revenue to himself and the obscenely wealthy.
Infrastructure? Health care? Education?
republicans Drain the treasury.
2
This is likely the saddest article I've read on the Times today. And that's saying something.
1
My HS had a celing collapse due to toxic black mold. They just left it for months and put up two sad looking notices telling students not to touch the mold.
After a resource officer assulted a student and broke his nose they just left the blood stain on the warping linoleum; I wouldnt be surprised if it was still there.
But there was money for a new razorwire fence, and new security cameras for the bathrooms. Priorities matter!
1
This is a feature, not a bug, in the system. Keeping people poorly educated and ignorant allows our right-wing leadership to maintain control.
5
Living In Chicago , I can tell you just throwing money at this problem does not work !!!
2
25 year old textbooks!, that's horrible.
1
Maybe Congress should trade their income snd benefits with Educators. Its a question if who is more deserving of our Taxpayers dollars! For a rich country we are educationing way behind our European allies. Such a disgrace.
1
I they rename textbooks, 'guns', they will all be replaced free of charge in mint condition.
4
Democrat and Republican governments local, state, and federal have all contributed to starving education just as they have mental health (thanks for starving Dorothea Dix to death Democratic governors of NC!) No one should be allowed to stand for an election unless they attended a public school or have a kid in one.
1
A national disgrace.
1
You forgot fair and balanced.
How about highlighting that band teacher out in Suffolk County, NY who taught one class a day for 30 years and retired with $120,000 a year pension PLUS tax payer provided medical care for the rest of his life????
1
Shame on the world richest nation!
2
The Nyt should do this weekly. Showcase a few teachers and their schools. Today I will send donations to everyone in this article. I am sure I won’t be the only one. This is such a stain on this country that we allow this to happen. Another rallying cry for voting.
2
Meanwhile, Scott Pruitt spends $43,000 of tax payer dollars to build a phone booth...
2
Absolutely shameful. Elect better people.
2
Don't judge a book by its cover.
This is all part of Republicans' plan to destroy America. It's working.
2
To those who think the teacher spending all that money on books for the library got a bum deal: I assume more than one of each title was purchased.
I fervently hope that Betsy DeVos reads the NYT and sees these pictures and accompanying stories since she admitted she hasn't seen it first hand.
2
Thank you. Let's try to stay focussed, everyone.
Unpopular opinion:
Take into consideration all the people thinking its a good idea to start a family. "It's great." "It brings you self fulfillment and bounties of joy." Most people approach having/starting a family the same idiotic way that they would if they were to buy a pet. It's an expensive, often terrible investment and a burden to everyone around you.
The more people you have, the more mouths there are to feed and the more crowded classrooms will become. Considering schools aren't particularly meant for education these days (they're a business) and most public school are high on the list when budgets need to get cut, does this really surprise anyone? With millions in the US and an ever growing tech driven industry, no one but you really cares if you perfect little angel isn't good at filling in multiple choice tests like some smart lab rat. Most children will fail, it's set up that way on purpose. Stop having so many dang kids and within 30-50 years, things will start to level out.
Things aren't getting any cheaper. Funding public schools, especially in lower income areas, is like throwing sponges into an almost dried up lake with no foreseeable resources to keep the water coming - stupid. Stop having kids or adopt. If you don't have the money to send your kid to a good school, you probably shouldn't be having children in the first place.
1
We have $227 million for fancy weapons to bomb Syria but $0 for schools. Who are our leaders and where did they go? Sad!
3
Thank you States and your Koch sponsored legislative agendas; you are what truly makes America great - as in great wreck. A great nation treats its children like this? Talk about insuring that the next generation will be worse off than the current. Disgusting- our nation is disgusting.
1
Is this what maga looks like?
Is this what a first world nation looks like?
Or is this what selfishness and consistently fighting for funding cuts to everything except new military hardware and underinvestment in the things that really matter looks like? G_d help us.
3
Defunding public education is a testament to the stupidity and self-satisfied feeling of class-superiority on the part of politicians who vote for funding. You don't get better jobs and healthier economic standards by clinging to ancient solutions like reopening coal mines, you get them by teaching kids to compete in a global economy. Though the word "global" has become a dirty word for officious idolalogs.
3
Schools need to be safe, healthy and support learning.
Teachers and students need full stomachs and desks full of new books and materials.
We are the richest nation but with the most foolish government.
3
Sad. Shameful. Horrible. Inexcusable.
2
Every time I hear about that stupid WALL I think how badly the public education is now, and how expensive college is, and how ripped off students are trying to pay loans. Our Government has gone of the rails. Mexicans aren't the problem, Congress is.
4
Education should be at the top of the list for children, right behind food and housing. Without education this country will fail. The rich don't need breaks. They need oversight. This is so pathetic. We should be embarrassed.
2
I just wanted to say Thank You to all of the dedicated teachers in our country.I am so glad that many of you are now willing to strike and protest.Please know that many if not most, in your communities support you.Yell loud!
4
Can someone explain how California spends less than West Virginia per student, but doesn't have this condition of it's classrooms?
1
What else is new. I have taught in an urban district, high poverty school for 20 years. We are sort of duct-taped together. The kids are diverse and wonderful; there are many immigrant students. At one point we counted over 25 languages spoken at our school. I love that. But the dirty windows that haven't been washed in 10 years, the photocopying of entire plays or short novels (hey, what are a few copyright laws?), the cafeteria that looks like the ugliest fast food restaurant on the planet, the endless expectations that we can "fix" everything and everyone is exhausting. Students appreciate the efforts; parents appreciate the efforts. However, district officials keep expecting more with less. I haven't had a real pay increase in over ten years. Our newest contract, fought for for over a year, allowed us a .5 increase for a year and a half, then we start the contract negotiation process all over again. The standardized testing that costs millions, the millions more spent in "teacher oversight and accountability"--(as though I was a less dedicated teacher during the 11 year period when no district official "observed" my practice), all those luxury perks district folk routinely get--the conferences in far-away states, the lovely cafe's in their headquarters while we eat our peanut butter sandwich over the broken down copier that we are trying to fix--yet again--this is what becomes demoralizing. Allow teachers and staff to run schools--things would be better.
255
A relief to know that you're there......thank you.
6
You mean, you can't fix this with endless testing, a la the Broad and Gates Foundation's recommendations, people who have never worked in the classroom? You can't fix this by being evaluated with "outcome-oriented" goals? You can't fix this by spending your own money, or by submitting Donors Choose applications? And gee, I thought it was just that simple.
10
Under the Obama administration, there was an attempt to roll out the new "core" program. No evidence that it was an improvement on the previous processes, no training for teachers, millions paid to vendors for new materials. No federal funding for the new, untested standards.
Money that could have been spent effectively was instead gifted to crony vendors.
As long as Obamacare keeps increasing medical inflation and increasing the proportion of state budgets dedicated to Medicaid, spending on other state priorities is reduced. Ninety percent of K-12 spending is provided by state and local taxes.
3
One F-15 fighter costs roughly $30 million. Imagine if we spent that money on education instead. Or fixing our infrastructure.
You can't have any serious discussion about the federal budget unless you address the elephant in the room, i.e. defense and security spending.
How about we cut the defense budget by 50% until all of our infrastructure needs are addressed and all of our schools are properly funded.
3
I had to bring kettles from home to catch the water dripping from my classroom ceiling. As many as 10 students sat on the floor due to an insufficient number of desks. To get up and down the aisles you had to turn sideways, it was so crowded. Because we didn't have AC, in hot weather the room reached 98 degrees. I had to buy my own fans and supplies at over $1000 a year.
Meanwhile, Comcast and other mega-businesses paid no Oregon taxes last year. Yet the public rejected raising minimum corporate taxes. That means they chose to hurt teachers and students instead.
283
Those conditions are obscene. Have republicans lost all morality that corporate welfare has a higher priority than our children's education?
20
This is a shocking article. Much of the world considers Americans to be stupid and ignorant. Obviously the blame falls on the federal and state governments ! In Canada, the provinces have direct responsibility for education although transfer payments come from the federal government to provinces to ensure Canada-wide standards. Americans must demand loudly that governments of all levels ensure a high level of education resources and supplies. !! What does Betsy DeVos do all day? Shocking !!
19
I am not sure if I’ve ever voted for a Republican, I try to look at the individuals who are running. But did you not notice that the underfunding has been on going for years through both parties administrations?
It takes the public to VOTE on the small tax increases necessary for the funding needed and hold the legislatures accountable to spend it only for education. In my area any increase is voted against automatically, although our property taxes are relatively low.
I am a recently retired teacher and will probably always vote for taxes directed to public education and libraries.
First, thanks NYTimes. So very many questions come to mind reading this article, and especially the comments. First, where are the newspapers in these states? Why does it take the NYTimes to show the pictures of torn, taped books, keyless machines to teach typing, classrooms without furniture, leaking ceilings, pipes, .....who owns those papers and when did they run these pictures, run the stories on these buildings (to say nothing of where are the building inspectors).
Where is the Democratic Party in each of these states- giant billboards showing these books, empty rooms- perhaps next to an ad with smiling Republican governors, legislators touting tax cuts. Dems have had years to - what? Oh right- move to the right, fear the very mention of needing taxes. We won’t even get into giant pictures of bridges, dams, roads that need repairs, replacements. No, Dems in these states won’t take the time, the cell phone cameras to show what libertarianism really looks like. That’s....too progressive!
And these teachers? Hello- stop using your money to cover up the results of less government. Marching for more money for salaries, schools...yes. But stay put on those state capitol steps until your state goes back to paper ballots, votes to begin the process of overturning Citizens United with a Constitutional Amendment. In every state - and we, the millions in the majority, will come join in. No...guess that might be too progressive, too. We’ll just have a “conversation”.
2
This, above all else, is the reason Trump was elected president. We have neglected our most valuable asset for a long time - our kids. This is what generations of defunding public education has done to our country; it has allowed the election of a despot and a scam artist by a poorly educated population who have not been taught to think critically.
11
It's because poor and middle class kids are not worth education in the GOP's eyes.
2
umm, wasn't the democratic party just in office for 16 of the past 24 years?
1
Shameful. Absolutely shameful in the richest nation on the planet. Public education gets the short shrift here. And tax cuts for the wealthy. A nation which boasts the most powerful military ever. Is it any wonder why our nation never makes at or near the top in education when compared with other nations? After reading this article, shameful was the only word I could muster. My support goes out to these dedicated teachers who do the best they can under these deplorable conditions. Teachers, keep on fighting!!
4
And this is why 40% of Americans are unclear about the genocide in WWII, 40% of Americans think free speech is dangerous, 40% of Americans support Trump, and 40% of Americans have all the intelligence of a brain-damaged hamster.
Our education is lousy and failing our citizens, and this is a primary cause for our empire failing. Obviously, America is on a quick downslope, losing influence worldwide. Just as obviously, Republicans will do nothing to improve education, and will instead work to destroy the system entirely. Trump loves the uneducated, they are the only ones who will still believe his constant lies.
3
Arizona, Nevada, Tennessee, Michigan, Oklahoma, Colorado, Texas, Kentucky...these all have Republican leadership (either the Senate, the Governor, or both). Rhode Island is the odd case here. Although I feel for the teachers who have to work under these horrible conditions, it is ultimately the students (the children of presumably Republican voters) who suffer the most and who will sadly grow up to support Republican candidates (if they vote at all). In their blind quest to deny illegals, minorities, and the poor from getting anything they don't deserve, these R voters have ensured that their children are the ones losing out. Ironic.
4
The selection by NYT was not random. Come to CA, its public schools are ranked at the bottom of the pile both in spending and performance, and no Republicans in sight.
No wonder so many people in this country fall for fake news. We need a well-educated citizenry who can think critically, and call a lie a lie!
The American educational system has been gutted by low taxes and budget cuts to education. We get the quality of education we deserve and one we are willing to pay for. The rich want low to no taxes, and most everyone else does too.
Our dedicated teachers face enormous obstacles because of scarce funding. Their dedication and hard work are not enough; they need state support!
How can we expect to have a robust democracy that depends on a well-educated citizenry, citizens who know the difference between fact and fiction, if education and children in this country are not a priority?
2
Teachers, keep up the fight! You and your students deserve much, much better. The legislators that have cut your budgets year after year wouldn’t last ten minutes in your jobs before they ran screaming.
2
All of us should join the teachers in their struggle for better funding. Our children and the state of our democracy depend on it!
Forget it. We would rather gift tax breaks to billionaires and write blank checks to the Pentagon.
We do, however, talk a beautiful game about the value of education, with giant tears of sincerity. This is called hypocrisy.
4
This is beyond shameful. The utter lack of support, care or concern for education in this country is a symptom the rampant, hostility for anything intellectual. It's catching up with us quickly too - 30% is just the tip of the iceberg.
2
Poor Arizona kids. Poor Arizona teachers.
Guess this gives a clue about all those retirees who don’t have to pay much in taxes down there. Republicans, probably. Greed and selfishness.
As an American all this is embarrassing. Shame on us for allowing these deplorable conditions for our public schools - students and teachers have been demoralized.
Betsy DeVos, our Secretary of Education, with no education in education, is a sham of the highest level.
3
I'm starting to believe that starving our educational systems of the revenue they need to function is a deliberate attempt to keep the bulk of our citizenry ignorant, much like many of the communist regimes have done. Higher education in those countries is reserved for the party elite's children; the rest of the population is an expendable work force or canon fodder for the military. The Trump administration is totally on board with this and is seeking to accelerate it.
6
We as Americans in the richest greatest country ever, should be embarrassed by this article. It’s a total disgrace and shows that to Americans, making bombs and war machinery is more important than our children. This article shocks the conscience!
2
These dilapidated school room conditions are a dream come true for every Republican voter because they're getting EXACTLY what they voted for! - Lower taxes and smaller government!
Democrats, on the other hand, consider this a crime.
And the students who have to learn in these run down conditions? Ask a rich Republican legislator and they'll tell you, "Well, those children should have chosen to be born rich, like me! So, it's their own fault!"
1
It is appalling that self-proclaimed "masters of the universe" make billions of dollars and these teachers are barely scraping by. Scratch that. It is immoral and reflective of a decadent civilization bent on expanding and preserving the underclass.
These children deserve better. Teachers deserve better. Neighborhoods deserve better. Open spaces, contact with nature, healthy food, healthy relationships, arts, music, language....How can anyone thrive? And then we complain about these students and teachers as if it's their fault they can't fix everything up...or shut up and take the crumbs and be happy for them
for shame
1
I replied to the Times' request for comments from teachers. We've never had it great in Idaho but, honestly, I am dismayed reading the comments from my colleagues across the country. Things are horrible out there! It is hard to imagine lawmakers playing politics with our children, but they have and continue to do so. And we allow, even encourage it.
3
This is classic. Now, let's head over to the Wall Street Journal for their anecdotal horror stories from administrators about incompetent teachers. Sorry, I'm just not into left-right games this week.
1
"It will be a great day when our schools get all the money they need and the air force has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber."
Timely then, timely now.
4
Budget cuts? You must be joking. Education spending is continually up and to the right.
2
Thomas Jefferson said it best: "if a country expects to be ignorant and free, it expects what never was, and never will be."
5
Name one Republican Governor who ran on increasing school funding?
2
Rick Scott
1
As the spouse of a teacher, raised by two teachers, I find a bitter taste when I hear the woe's of many of these states.
Taxes are what pays for your children's futures. Taxes pay for your schools. Taxes pay for said schools educators. Taxes pay for the bathrooms and faucets at those schools. Books, air-conditioning, Heating, nurses, councilors, busses, lunches, in some locals breakfasts, etc., etc....
When the good citizens of said states and cities refuse to tax themselves...
When they continue to vote for politicians that cut taxes...
You'se gets whats ya pays fors.
ZERO~!
As do your children and their futures.
2
Its not about spending more money for education, it is about how the money they get is spent. A big problem is the millions spent on salaries for layers of administration that contribute nothing to the class room, and wasted office expense. You need superintendents with MBAs rather than doctorates of education. Their job is the BUSINESS of education yet most cannot even balance a check book even though they handle multi-million dollar budgets. In spite of what the arrogant libs think, it is a BUSINESS and needs to run as an efficient and EFFECT one. Otherwise they continue to bleed us taxpayers and dump more and more money to achieve NOTHING!
5
so would you suggest that a business person (such as trump) would be better equiped to handle public schools and schoolchildren rather than a professional educator?? What would the goals look like under such leadership? Would profit be the number one goal above all else?
Education, like healthcare, isn't a business; It's a human right, and attempting to run it like a business will lead to inevitable abject failure. Sorry you don't have the brains or imagination to think about anything other than capitalism and how it should be the way we do everything (which is dumb), but anytime someone says "treat education like a business," It just lets me know they're too dumb to listen to.
Is it a coincidence that two two male teachers earned over $90,000 while the female teachers maxed out at $50,000?
4
Red State teachers earned $50K, Blue State teachers $90+. MI has a republican governor now but in the past was very blue. The teachers that earn the least live in states that are always running on tax cuts not investment
2
Pretty awful. I am originally from Russia where teachers are routinely underpaid and underappreciated. How sad to see the same phenomenon happening here in the United States!
2
Clearly, the oligarchs have no use for educated citizens.
1
If schools spent less on duct tape the country could use that money to increase the military budget. Will we never lern . . . um, learn?
2
Here's a question: why do schools even use text books? There's enough free, online content out there to teach most subjects. Solves another problem as well. Kids carrying their own weight in backpacks.
I haven't used a book in my university classes in 5 years.
2
Plain and simple, this dire situation is attributable to our Republican governors and the Republican-controlled state legislatures. They control the funding to education. And to everything else that funds the ‘common good’ projects of our local communities.
Apparently, the party of ‘family values’ doesn’t give a fig about this country’s kids, whether it is funding a great education for ALL of our children, or it is keeping them safe from gun violence during the school year.....Or making sure they don’t go to bed hungry, or making sure they see doctors when needed and stay healthy. The Republicans talk a good game, but their actions are morally bankrupt.
The GOP is too beholden to its elite donors to care about most Americans or the common good. Hence, huge tax breaks for the rich and for corporations.... plus plenty of funding for a huge military build-up ...
Budget cuts for education, infrastructure, research and development.
Vote.
3
Ladies and Gentlemen, our education system.
This makes me so angry. Furious.
These are signs of a country that's really lost it's way and is in a state of inner decay.
Plenty of money for bombs, prisons and tax cuts, though.
2
The ugly truth is that this is all by design. The nouveau riche class that controls the Republican party doesn't like competition for themselves or their children so they rig the race. At least the ruling 20th century WASP class realised that keeping people down is not sustainable so they took reasonable care. The Koch brothers, Mercers and their ilk who think history doesn't have a few lessons for them are in for a rude awakening.
3
Betsy DeVos is at the helm of the educational ship of state, so why should we be concerned?
I'm not sure she can spell her own name, but our president assured us he'd take care of everything. He promised Americans he would fill every federal position with "the very best people"; He knew the best people, he said, and he must know what he's talking about. Right?
I really think the USA should get its priorities straight.
Stop wasting all this money on primary schools.
You need to get going building 2 more super carrier battle groups!
You never know, you might fight Russia, China and some middle eastern country all at the same time.
Trump is the result of stripping education bare, for decades.
UNable to think critically, look what we have now.
1
This brings tears to my eyes. How this country has fallen in my lifetime! If "taxpayers" don't understand the importance of investing in education for the next generations, we are doomed. Don't give me excuses about why you are not responsible for anyone else. We live in a society, supposedly civilized, which requires an understanding that "we are all in this together." We have only one life, one world. And who wants to be a teacher now? Do you want the best or the mediocre, or worse?
1
This article saddens me. Education is one of those gifts that we give our children that makes our world a better place. It is our investment in the future. If we put nothing into it, we get nothing out.
This whole thing started with so many stupid things from government lack of concern. It is beyond time to get over this silliness of cutting school spending and start long term investing in our education system.
There is no way a teacher should have to work with old books. This is unacceptable. I know of many teachers who spend way too much on making sure their students have at least the minimum necessary to learn. Where are our legislators in this? We pay taxes of all kinds, and for some reason, nothing is getting done to even make our children competitive in the world. Here in Indiana, we have a school tax, and the lottery is supposed to put a lot into the schools, but that does not seem to be happening.
There are a few things I have seen that bother me today. In one school, they cut out art so they could pay for sports team wants. What was funny is that the band had to pay for their uniforms.
Besides my 35+ years in the military, I am a scientist, and I know that among all of the children we have in schools today, there is the next Einstein, Hawking, and even the next Grace Murray-Hopper. If we do not give our schools what they need to encourage these bright minds, they will be lost and we will pay for it. It is time to fund our schools no matter where they are.
3
Hello! This dire dynamic has become woven into the tapestry of teaching. This week I will be performing in SF at The Marsh: “Throwing Darts in Traffic: Teaching in America.” Teachers are given less and less and asked to do more and more. It’s like be given the headlines of the NYT’s every day and told to make the headlines better.
The GOP has always preferred zygotes to actual living, breathing children. That's why abortion is a sin but failing to provide money for health care, food, and education is the highest priority. If people want change, they need to vote out the GOP. And Evangelical Christians need to practice what Christ preached.
3
Back in the 1960s, the top tax rate was 70% and the corporate rate was 50%. Under those "job killing" tax rates, growth was more than twice what it is now, averaging over 4%.
At that time, corporations were expected to take all of their stakeholders into account, and have loyalty to their employees, consumers, and communities. Now they only care about shareholders. Employees are disposable and consumers are suckers to be manipulated.
While China invests in itsself, we give tax cuts to corporations that invest in China. China builds high speed Magnetic Levitation Trains, while we struggle to fill pot holes.
Our private corporations take publicly funded research and then it into private profits, but are so greedy they want to cut funding for that very research. They cut funding for education then complain they can't find skilled workers. They import skilled workers at half price, then tell you that it was the immigrants that took your job. The fact that you had to train your replacement before they fired you is ignored.
Productivity doesn't come just from machinery, capital. Increases in productivity come from education, healthcare, research and infrastructure. You don't invent new machinery unless you have those basic ingredients.
We are hollowing out our society, by giving greedy financiers all of the resources, which they use to find better ways to commit fraud.
Society is built from the ground up, but destroyed from the top down.
INVEST IN ALL HUMANS
2
If we as a society can not provide quality basic (K-12) education, how in the world will our children be prepared for the future economies to come. We are knowingly setting them up to be "left behind". The children deserve so much more!
1
The 25-eqr-old textbooks might be just fine if they are not missing pages. One of the disgusting things you see in education is when the author of a text "updates" his text to "2nd ed" or "3rd ed" etc with changes of no consequence just so students have to buy a new book rather than use a secondhand book from someone else. I think some of the math books I used in high school in the 1960s are just as good as what they use now.
2
Although I'm appalled by the cuts that have been made in education throughout the country, I have to say that the situation hasn't changed much since 1985, when I began teaching in a San Francisco high school: ancient textbooks, holes in the ceilings (a cat entered my classroom through one of them one day) AND in the walls, trashed restrooms, teachers paying for paper and pencils, let alone lab equipment, and sweeping out their own classrooms.
Do we really care about education in this country?
154
No, but we do care about declaring it "excellent" and creating "centers of excellence".
16
We have plenty of money for the Pentagon. Your Republican Congress at work. And your President has plenty for $3,000,000 golf weekends.
32
We like to say we care, mainly by buying new standardized tests and creating new teacher oversight products. However, this isn't caring. Care means meeting student needs for supplies and safety, especially in high-poverty areas.
5
The current state of affairs is deplorable; the current administration is doing everything they can to make life more difficult in the public schools.
Two things not mentioned in the article: special ed and pensions. I suspect that a majority of any recent increase in per-pupil spending goes to (necessary) special ed costs.
What proportion of the $12,000/pupil/year goes to special ed and pensions? This will help clarify just how short-changed public school students are these days.
2
None of the defects mentioned here would prevent a hard working ambitious kid with a good teacher from getting a great education. It's been shown over and over that education is not a function of shiny buildings and new computers. The amounts mentioned (let's say $1,000 per teacher or ~$40 per student) are trivial in a country where the average spend is more than $10,000 per year and in many poor districts like Baltimore or Washington DC closer to $20,000. So where is all this money going? I do sympathize with the teachers but I think they need to find fault by looking at their won districts.
4
When I read of the shortage of books, furniture, art supplies, pencils, paper and computers I am filled with total outrage!
Where are America's corporate giants? Where is Facebook, Amazon, Intel, Apple, and all the other massively profitable mega corps, that pay little taxes and make a fortune for a few and who ignore the educational system that provides them with the wealth of talent they need to prosper? Where is the partnership between communities and business to foster better facilities and supplies for schools? Why is no one addressing that issue and making it public how little is given back to American communities especially our educational infrastructure?
There is no shortage of money for education in America. There is a great mis-direction of that money to other uses or to line the pockets of too many who don't need it.
We need to raise taxes on corporate giants especially at the local level to fund our schools. I bet everyone of the communities starved for funds has a Wal Mart, or other big box retailer or large industrial company that pays nothing to support schools and education. Let them give back. Let's demand it. No more free ride at the expense of our children and their future.
1
We need a loud, unified, nationwide movement to restore all necessary funding to public schools and bring American education into the 21st century, just like we have seen recently in other areas (women's rights, gun control). I believe there are many Americans that care about this issue. We need to mobilize and amplify these voices.
2
As the son of a grade school teacher, and the father of a high school teacher, I know full well how demanding teaching is. Teaching is a noble profession and most people who go into it want to make a difference, God bless them.
But both major political parties have dropped the ball on supporting education at all levels. No matter your political views, it should be clear that all of us need to demand better for our children and our future.
3
It's easy to blame "The System" or - everyone's favorites - Trump and the Republicans and government spending -- but it's more insidious and rune much deeper than those easy targets --
When we willingly participate in a society which deems it appropriate to pay professional athletes, actors and pop stars tens of millions of dollars (along with VIP treatment) -- while at the same time paying public-school teachers - the people to whom we charge with the care and education of our children, and the nation's future - barely fifty thousand dollars a year (while expecting them to sacrifice part of it towards educational expenses) - we become complicit in "The System" and must share the blame --
And - future historians will look back at our current skewed and misguided priorities - and judge us accordingly...
3
As a current high school sophomore in North Carolina, I can affirm every single picture and statement I saw in this collection. And the truth is, it's sad. Sad and embarrassing. Personally, all of my teachers are extremely hard working individuals, all of whom work to teach my peers and I by whatever means necessary, which often includes out-of-pocket purchases. And I know for a fact that every single one of them is underpaid. With everything they do for me, and all they do for others, they deserve nothing but adequate compensation. However, in North Carolina, where teacher's unions are illegal, they have almost no means of projecting their voices. They are simply ignored, neglected by our lawmakers.
Just like Jose Coca in Arizona, my textbooks are dilapidated and hardly usable, when I am even provided any. Just like Elliot Glasler, my teachers have to pay for their own books, as the money they are provided isn't anywhere near sufficient. Just like David Russell, my entire school lacks furniture, and with some classes having 40+ students, some don't have desks and chairs. Just like all of the teachers on this list, and the vast majority of public schools nationwide, my school is not provided what it needs.
Education has been swept under the political rug for far too long. Us kids are the future, along with the all of the generations that will follow. As a society, we need to provide the proper means and environment for kids to learn within our public schools.
267
What is depicted here is utterly inexcusable, abhorrent, and disgusting. It does not seem, however, that inadequate funding happens to "the vast majority of public schools nationwide" -- the statistics I have found (https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/) seem to suggest disparity rather than equal dysfunction, with certain state government being particularly blameworthy. A good fix would be to have some mix of property tax redistribution and increased federal funding in general.
3
So when a public official says they have to offer "choices" to students, like defunding public schools and fund charter schools, just remember every dollar that is lost to public schools. Of course, they blame teachers for the "failing" public schools, but the teachers don't control funding, but have to "do more with less." Every kid that doesn't attend public school means less funding for the school.
2
Note: re old textbooks.
I once used a 30 year old NY State test prep book to teach myaself chemistry. I found it in the garbage and it turned out to have more then enough information that was current, enough, for a beginner in the sub-although perhaps cellular biology may be more sensitive to recent new discoveries-are still usually quite current enough for most HS and JHS kids to get the drift of the subject. When there are errors and differences due to recent science-it is not the end of the world and it also teaches people-students and teaches, how the process of discovery and science works, over time.
Old books, by themselves, are not the end or death of an education. Should we also throw out Sam Clemens' humor because he uses the now forbidden "N" word-once common in the USA? and all Political science based on 250 year old philosophy?
Lets be reasonable!
3
I have been retired since June of 2003, but from 1993 to 1998, I worked in an alternative school in Covington, Ky. in which the roof leaked so badly that buckets literally covered the floor in the halls. The furnace was an old coal burner that blew black smoke into the building. The windows were old single pane glass and in such poor condition that one blew out into a classroom floor on a windy day. Fortunately, no one was injured. In the winter, it would snow inside the windows and we would leave the snow on the inside sill because it provided some insulation. On occasion, I would have to bring the ice scraper from my car to scrape the frost off my metal desk. When we finally got a xerox machine, the electrical system in the building could not handle the power drain and it would trip the circuit breakers. Much of the teaching materials were generated by the staff and I personally bought paperback books to teach my English class. The building was infested with mice that got into the snack machines and ate the snacks and there were flying roaches everywhere. The attic was infested with pigeons and their droppings from the roof overhangs would fall on students and staff as they entered and left the building. That was over 20 years ago. I don't know that I can imagine how much worse it must be today.
3
Sobering news from Josephine Sedgwick. My secondary education in NJ was really central to my growth. It should serve as a baseline for how schools should educate today. Unfortunately, that was years ago, and today education has deteriorated.
And equally unfortunately, Ivonne Rovira in Louisville has realized the truth:
"It was only when legislators faced 10,000 teachers and state workers inside and outside the State Capitol building that they had the fear of God instilled in them."
If we don't educate our population, there will be other nations to assume the mantle, such as China and India. The irony is that, although they have many poorly educated people, with their billions of citizens, China and India can generate large numbers of educated people.
But therein lies another irony. If voters in the communities mentioned in Josephine's article don't like the cost of education here, then they could outsource education to nations who provide it more cheaply. They have already relied on immigrants to teach who will accept the lowest salary.
2
Heraclitus: character is destiny
(“sow a character and you reap a destiny”).
Our schools are our future. Bleak.
Obama’s education policy unleashed more market forces that closed hundreds of public schools for charter ones, most closed in poor neighborhoods.
I’m not a conspiracy theory type person, but when it comes to education in this country I’m starting to believe something is afoot. It behooves the powers that be and the political shakers and movers to keep the populace ignorant, uneducated and lacking critical thinking processes that makes them easily manipulated. Look who’s president.
9
States & Federal government do not want education to keep up with the times. A lot of Trump voters are results of this out dated education system. Need I say more.
I came to the same conclusion in the early 1990s, when I worked as a public high school teacher. State politics then was full of rhetoric about how quality schools are important for the future of the state, but little of that rhetoric translated to action to benefit the kids in the school system where I worked. Since then, less and less state funding has gone to public education, and schools have become increasingly differentiated by the relative wealth of the communities that they serve. Democracy is endangered when the nation’s future citizens do not have equal access to quality education. That is as true now as it was a quarter century ago...
Our rich, mostly white, greedy, self interested lawmakers want a system of unprecedented economic inequality; they do not want to fix a system that keeps them rich and comfortable.
4
The unstated goal when funds are reduced for public schools is to create generations of uneducated kids, who grow up to be marginally employable adults, and can then be convinced that they are the “victims” of immigrants who steal their jobs. Without any understanding of the world, or the educational tools that help figure things out, we get a nation that elected this president, and through him we get the completely unfit Secretary of Education.
It is self perpetuating, and a governmental choice.
5
Trump had to use Pence vote to get the unacceptable Secretary of Education. Pence keeps getting called on to break ties to get unacceptable people & changes passed. How convenient since Trump keeps picking unqualified people. SAD!
This is what state and the Federal Government have been doing for decades, then they have have the gall to say that the US is the greatest country in the world, says who, a bunch of lying politicians that have been nothing but self serving, please. That statement is nothing more than propaganda to keep the public’s attention focused on something else. But propaganda is an art, it’s the art of trying to convince you, of something they don’t believe in themselves.
Like the phrase, the US is the greatest country in the world. Apparently that’s only true if you come from means, if you’re an average working class American, you will be touched by poverty in your lifetime. Which may be fine (to some extent) if you’re capable or working. If you’re old, or disabled, your standard of living is wholly dependent on how stingy the federal government is with our money, it certainly isn’t theirs. The chronic tax breaks for the rich, richer, and for corporations have to be paid for, and who pays, our children do, and by extension this country does.
And maybe this is the plan, to keep the population ignorant, keep them educated enough to work in a call canter, or some other service industry. Look at countries that value an education and see how much better off they are. While our politicians at every level of government have a track record of taking from essential services to pay for tax breaks, that’s something those uneducated voters Trump likes so much don’t seem to understand.
2
"The greatest country in the world." "Republicans are conservative." "Republican evangelicals follow Christ's teachings." All complete and utter balderdash.