Young Americans are dumbs

[AggregateDemand]

In the US, a classroom of 25 students costs about $300,000 on average. The most profligate states will spend closer to $500,000 per 25 students. Less than 20% goes to the teacher.

The teacher's unions and school administrators are not spending the money on pertinent instruction. Instead, the money goes to various special support staff, consultants, special programs, legacy pension/benefit costs. As superfluous expenses are piled onto schools, the districts become desperate to contain costs so they pile on more fiscal service expenses and actuarial expenses.

The system is backwards. The people in the classroom should be well-paid. The ancillary support need to be contained.

[AggregateDemand]

For once, I agree with you, mostly. But I would say than the waste isn't into real support staff (which usually do a wonderful and important job), but all the office workers in the school boards HQ.

I find it remarkably sad that the education industry is setup so that talented people aspire to do something other than teach. Imo, the unions merely compound the problem by making talented people aspire to retire or work in different industries.

If the states ever get around to real education reform, they should look to Finland.

[AggregateDemand]

Blaming unions is really a non sequitur. "Workers organize to ask for better conditions, therefore the quality of the product goes down." No. That was certainly never the case before, and to blame unions for the USA's slippage in educational readiness is just short-sighted ideology.

We're talking about services not goods. It is widely accepted that many service-sector unions, particularly public service-sector unions, have an adverse impact on the quality of service.

Teachers' unions should be pressured to improve. The US pays more than any other OECD nation for K-12 education. If anything, the unions are simply piling more administrators on to the system, while protecting mediocre teachers and failing to attract quality talent into the teaching profession.