Saturday, March 21, 2015

Where does the money go?


The school I attended for high school in had roughly the same number of students as the one I currently teach in. I can remember a principal and an assistant principal (notice, singular) but then I was never in trouble (goody two shoes). I wasn't sure, so I went to look.

The high school I attended:
5 business
11 ela
8 fine arts
7 foreign language (4 languages)
10 math
6 pe
6 practical arts
9 science
8 social studies
70 teachers (and this accounts for all of them)

The school where I teach:
6 business
10 ela
4 fine arts
5 foreign language (2 languages)
10 math
6 pe
5 practical arts
11 science
9 social studies
16 special ed
82 teachers (and I have NOT counted the social workers, graduation coaches, parapros, interventionists, SROs) serving the same number of kids.

I find it interesting. Math - you only had to have 2 years compared to the current 4. I took science every year, but I think you only needed 2 years.

The biggest increase in staff is in special education and teacher support.

Are we better off? (P.S. There were 2 assistant principals. The current school has 6.)

1 comment:

Curmudgeon said...

The special ed was a joke before 1990, so that's a wash in my book. We can't seriously suggest NOT dealing with the kids who used to be encouraged to leave/ drop out/ never show in the first place.

The admins seem to be a big part of the increase. They're usually very well paid ... and don't forget the curriculum coordinators and the math coach and the blahblahblah.

The biggest part of the increase comes from the change from "pay women teachers very little because we can" to "pay professionals an appropriate wage."

Not that the average taxpayer quite understands that.