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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

#71

Post by _8j50 »

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.

Sorry but most military spending is not going to paying salaries. If your point is that defense budget should be smaller then I agree with that, but the last you want during an economic crisis is cutting back on defense/military. The economy depends on peace and geopolitical stability,not being able to respond properly to a crisis requiring military action can lead to scenarios that exasperate economic recovery. My view is, when the economy does better, additional revenue should not be allocated to defense spending.

Re: US schools lay off hundreds of thousands

#72

Post by mysticpipuo »

nameless912 wrote: post #42
mysticpipuo wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Oh fuck off with this xenophobic bullshit.

Xeonophobic? By calling out the cause of all the chaos? I don’t understand why people keep defending Chinese government. With feeble reframing like racism.

Try this: why are you attacking hitler Germany? That’s xenophobic

Re: US schools lay off hundreds of thousands

#73

Post by dorchadas »

verst wrote: post #53
Spartan-S63 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Even shorter term I'd like us to move away from local property taxes being used for local schools. The state government should have a statewide pool of money they allocate to schools based on enrollment numbers, cost of living. This should be sufficiently funded such that teachers can make a living wage in the local school district. Those who don't like this can still send their kids to private schools.

I'm a teacher myself, and I think this is very much needed. Right now, good neighborhoods just get better schools, while bad neighborhoods get worse. It's a horribly vicious circle, and shows even in areas where there's only one school (my county, the 5th biggest in the state, only has 25k people and one high school) if there's a huge amount of poverty (something like 65% of our students are on free or reduced lunch; over 80% live with either a single parent, grandparent(s), or other guardian), so it doesn't get the funding that, say, the school in the rich neighboorhood of the nearest big city gets, and it shows (it also doesn't help that our guidance councilor is ignorant and actively trying to make everything easier and less rigorous, but that's a different story). A state wide collection and distribution would help a lot; sadly, you're right and a lot of the parents in those better-off neighborhoods won't like it.

Re: US schools lay off hundreds of thousands

#74

Post by jay_kyburz »

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.

Yes, this could be a good opportunity to revisit how education is done.

I have a 6 and 8 year old and we had about 8 weeks of home schooling here in Australia. We took the time to check out a wide variety of online learning resources.

Khan academy is great, but a little dry. Some other things have a little to much flair and not enough substance. I think there is a lot of great work to be done here.

Professionally made resources with tests and assessment built in could make a big impact. Student's can learn at their own pace, and I think most of it could be made just as "fun" as any video game.

The hardest problems will be "social". Determining when a student is lacking motivation, or when they are confused. How does and AI encourage them or clarify things in a way that's not more demotivating.

Actually, I'm sure the hardest problem is political, but putting that aside, building an online platform for years 1-6 would be really interesting. Years 7-12 would actually be a lot easier I think.

Re: US schools lay off hundreds of thousands

#75

Post by wolco »

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.

One size fits all policy?

Where do you draw the line with local parents fundraising to ensure schools in richer areas are always ahead in terms of opportunities?

Local education can prepare areas differently. Some states/areas like Texas would benefit from Spanish as a language course others like Hawaii might be better served with Japanese. Gym in Alaska must be different compared to Florida.

Nevermind the private schools. You have other school systems like the Amish, Native education or faith based or even home schooled.

Uniform models work better in smaller less diverse countries.

Re: US schools lay off hundreds of thousands

#76

Post by toomuchtodo »

makeitrein wrote: post #58

Just watched Bryan Caplan give a talk about how the majority of our education system's resources are spent towards a "signaling arms race". What once required a high school diploma requires an undergraduate degree. What once required an undergraduate degree requires graduate school. Most of your time spend in school is learning skills that the labor market cares little for. Not wholly convinced by his conclusion that…

Funding education through employer taxes based on the education requirements they desire was an idea that I heard that might have some merit. You want someone with a bachelors? You pay X amount per year for that employee. A masters? Even more. You expose the employer to the cost of their desire, and thereby suss out if it is a want or a genuine need. Very similar to carbon taxes.

If the tax is more expensive than on the job training, employees will get on the job training, possibly through an apprenticeship.

Re: US schools lay off hundreds of thousands

#77

Post by dannypgh »

_8j50 wrote: post #71
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.

Sorry but most military spending is not going to paying salaries. If your point is that defense budget should be smaller then I agree with that, but the last you want during an economic crisis is cutting back on defense/military. The economy depends on peace and geopolitical stability,not being able to respond properly to a crisis requiring military action can lead to scenarios that exasperate economic recovery. My v…

> The economy depends on peace and geopolitical stability

Well, we're boned.

Re: US schools lay off hundreds of thousands

#78

Post by dorchadas »

nostromo wrote: post #31
Spartan-S63 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Except common core was completely voluntary and the states didn't have to join it.

Re: US schools lay off hundreds of thousands

#79

Post by abootstrapper »

buzzkillington wrote: post #24
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.

>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. This should be the case. Having each state decide it's education is in the long term more dangerous than having each state have it's own army. Imagine if half the country had textbooks that made the Confederates out to be misguided but well meaning...…

Not sure why you’re being downvoted. I’m from the south and was taught as a child that the confederates fought for “states rights” and slavery was a subplot. Many years later I realized that was bullshit. I wished I could go back in time and call my teacher on it.

Re: US schools lay off hundreds of thousands

#80

Post by M5x7wI3CmbEem10 »

npunt wrote: post #60
lettergram wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except, the janitors and / or lunch servers can be hired within a couple weeks and don't require training. Teachers are harder to hire because they have expertise, unions, and have years of experience.

And what about the instructional aides and other staff that do have significant training? And what about the web of relationships formed between the staff and students, including those between the janitors, lunch servers, etc and students? And what about the capacities and institutional knowledge that staff have about school operations? Schools are complex operations, made simple only by those who don't understand th…

janitor-student relationships?

server-student relationships?

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