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US schools lay off hundreds of thousands

reuters.com

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Re: US schools lay off hundreds of thousands

#31

Post by nostromo »

Spartan-S63 wrote: post #27
tyree731 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Educational investments shouldn’t be dictated by transient economic conditions. Could someone not make the same argument about the national defense? Education is funded largely by local taxes, and local tax revenues are being gutted, so there isn't much that can be done here without nationalizing public education.

I don't think we should be opposed to nationalizing education. A common curriculum would help mobility when it comes to families moving across state lines. It would also ensure uniform funding and plentiful opportunities to poorer and rural schools.

> common curriculum

You mean something like Common Core? We have that.

Re: US schools lay off hundreds of thousands

#32

Post by achn »

MattGaiser wrote: post #7
achn wrote: post #3

Wait, public schools for children are not funded by the government in the US?

They are not funded by the national government. They are mostly funded by city and county governments, with some money from state governments. Basically each city or county is mostly responsible for paying for the education of the children within its boundaries. EDIT: I am slightly off on the percentages. See the comment below.

deleted

Re: US schools lay off hundreds of thousands

#33

Post by MattGaiser »

avsteele wrote: post #22

Title: about teachers. Anecdotes: about teachers. Buried in the article: Susanna Loeb, a professor of education at Brown University, said she believes most of the 469,000 laid off in April were non-teacher personnel, as districts tend to fire teachers last If schools aren't open, a lot of janitorial, cafeteria worker, etc... are probably being laid off.

At least in my province (in Canada), "non-teacher personnel" included all the academic support staff for learning disabled kids and academic assistants.

Re: US schools lay off hundreds of thousands

#34

Post by malwarebytess »

tyree731 wrote: post #4
viburnum wrote: post #2

You know who’s not laying off anyone? The military. Local funding of schools is ridiculous. Education benefits the whole nation. Educational investments shouldn’t be dictated by transient economic conditions.

> Educational investments shouldn’t be dictated by transient economic conditions. Could someone not make the same argument about the national defense? Education is funded largely by local taxes, and local tax revenues are being gutted, so there isn't much that can be done here without nationalizing public education.

>Could someone not make the same argument about the national defense?

The US's definition of National Defense is actually playing world police for corporate profit. With that in mind it shows that they are superficially similar only.

Re: US schools lay off hundreds of thousands

#35

Post by coliveira »

tengbretson wrote: post #25

It's odd to me that there is this bizarre certainty on hacker news that within 20 years the most common occupation, truck driving, will be nearly entirely obsolete, yet in an era where almost all human knowledge is available online for free, the idea that the education apparatus will either stay the same or continue to grow is somehow a given.

Five years ago there was the widespread belief that in 5 years most cars would be self driven. This was in fact the main reason for investors to give Uber extreme high valuation. As we see in this case, and many others, technology doesn't advance as fast as some of us wish.

Re: US schools lay off hundreds of thousands

#36

Post by mysticpipuo »

viburnum wrote: post #2

You know who’s not laying off anyone? The military. Local funding of schools is ridiculous. Education benefits the whole nation. Educational investments shouldn’t be dictated by transient economic conditions.

When you or your loved ones or your friends are devastated by the layoffs and shutdown. When you are hurting and frustrated by everything that’s going on.

Just remember.

It’s the Chinese government that did this.

Re: US schools lay off hundreds of thousands

#37

Post by drstewart »

achn wrote: post #32
MattGaiser wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are not funded by the national government. They are mostly funded by city and county governments, with some money from state governments. Basically each city or county is mostly responsible for paying for the education of the children within its boundaries. EDIT: I am slightly off on the percentages. See the comment below.

deleted

You realize this is exactly the same as how schools are funded in Canada, correct? You have provincial funding, not federal funding.

>Public schools are the responsibility of individual provincial departments of education and funded mainly from local and provincial taxes, with some federal funds.

https://www.justlanded.com/english/Canada/Canada-Guide/Educa....

Re: US schools lay off hundreds of thousands

#38

Post by npunt »

avsteele wrote: post #22

Title: about teachers. Anecdotes: about teachers. Buried in the article: Susanna Loeb, a professor of education at Brown University, said she believes most of the 469,000 laid off in April were non-teacher personnel, as districts tend to fire teachers last If schools aren't open, a lot of janitorial, cafeteria worker, etc... are probably being laid off.

This just places even more burden on teachers to do everything. This is like keeping the troops but removing the supply lines.

Re: US schools lay off hundreds of thousands

#39

Post by [deleted] »

achn wrote: post #32
MattGaiser wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are not funded by the national government. They are mostly funded by city and county governments, with some money from state governments. Basically each city or county is mostly responsible for paying for the education of the children within its boundaries. EDIT: I am slightly off on the percentages. See the comment below.

deleted

[deleted]

Re: US schools lay off hundreds of thousands

#40

Post by npunt »

tengbretson wrote: post #25

It's odd to me that there is this bizarre certainty on hacker news that within 20 years the most common occupation, truck driving, will be nearly entirely obsolete, yet in an era where almost all human knowledge is available online for free, the idea that the education apparatus will either stay the same or continue to grow is somehow a given.

That's because if you know anything about education, you know it's about human relationships as much as it is about pouring knowledge into empty vessels.
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