RE: Paying for Schools (was: SOCIETY: Re: The privatization of pu blic security)

From: Mitchell, Jerry (3337) (Jerry.Mitchell@esavio.com)
Date: Thu Aug 23 2001 - 08:23:01 MDT


> $5K per year? Maybe. $2K per year? No way. Come September
> I'll be paying
> $8,500 for a year's worth of a 1st grade education (and
> that's one of the
> cheapest schools I could find in the entire county). Even at
> that the
> school is constantly griping the entire year that they don't
> have enough to
> pay the teachers a decent wage, and they're constantly asking
> for donations
> and help with fundraisers all year long.
>
> An unsubsidized $5K per year elementary school education is
> probably going
> to buy you a classroom where kids outnumber teachers by 40 to
> 1, and a
> teacher who is earning barely enough to stay above the poverty line.
>
> -Zero

You neglect the impact of economies of scale. Right now, there isnt much of
an impact, but if all schools were private, the situation would be quite
pronounced. Besides, theres no studies that show a difference in the quality
of education declining if classroom sizes increase from say 30 to 50. It
sounds like there should be, but it reality, if you have 30 students, you
dont have a lot of time with individual students anyways. Double the size of
the class and you can drop prices dramatically.



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