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Actual brochure from protesters against raising teacher's wages (imgur.com)

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[–]Shatophiliac 107ポイント108ポイント  (46子コメント)

Schools (in the South particularly) also spend the most they can on football and other sports. The state of Texas for example says that for every dollar you spend on football you have to spend one dollar on education. So, many schools I have had the pleasure of attending or see my mom work at spend 50% of their total money on football. That's absolutely outrageous. Take Allen Texas for example. Sure, they arguably have the best football team in the state, but they added a massive overpriced extension onto their high school just so they could build a 60 million dollar stadium. Then they couldn't even play in it for a while because the construction was so shitty that it was unsafe and cracking in places. People yelled about corruption and bribery and such, but of course nothing ever came of it. They spent even more of our tax dollars on fixing the already overpriced and under built stadium.

The school I went to had 69 people in the graduating class the year I graduated. We had a stadium that was pretty massive and the entire football team would get brand new jerseys and shoes every single year. The head coach made 120k salary, while teachers weren't breaking 40k. Fuck learning right? When a star football player failed a class, the coach would come by and "persuade" the teacher to pass him. They even made it an unofficial rule that the starting varsity players couldn't fail.

My mom had to "answer to the school board" when she caught the superintendents kid and the chief of polices kid cheating in her class. She failed them both for the test, and the ensuing shitstorm was only dwarfed by the shitstorm that happened when she taught evolution at another close by school district, against the baptist church's (aka school board) warnings. She had a pipe bomb put in her mailbox that time. Let's just say she doesn't teach in bumfuck east Texas anymore, and I can't blame her.

[–]Val_Hallen 56ポイント57ポイント  (31子コメント)

I can't even imagine a stadium for high school football.

We had a field. Surrounded by a fence with some bleachers.

[–]TexasDD 37ポイント38ポイント  (23子コメント)

There's some screwed up priorities in my state. http://imgur.com/iCe2QSs

[–]Val_Hallen 41ポイント42ポイント  (15子コメント)

Jesus. Tapdancing. Christ.

It's like 5 times the size of the fucking school! Who is going to these games? Like, where do they get the population to fill the seats?

[–]Kildurin 10ポイント11ポイント  (11子コメント)

That is in far north Dallas so there are plenty in the surrounding area I suppose. Still, this is why I get so crazy about school funding in Texas. I have lived here more than 50 years and this has been true all my life. F*** sport in schools.

[–]TheOSC 9ポイント10ポイント  (9子コメント)

Can confirm. I lived in Atascocita Texas my entire middle-high school career and right after I graduated They decided they needed to revamp our football field (revamp is code for demolish and construct a new one). Every year in every class I took I would hear that I needed to bring classroom supplies like printer paper, tissues, staples, etc. because we couldn't afford them. But every year we got new football uniforms. There was nothing wrong with the original stadium and it was never sold out for games. The reconstruction cost around $1.5 Million.

That being said our biggest waste of money wasn't the football teams but the district it's self and our superintendent's over inflated salary.

Turner Stadium

There is also a huge problem with how we let teachers teach. Teachers are told what will be on the state or federal standardized test then pump Hours of useless knowledge into kids so they can score marginally better and get funding for the school. They are told how to teach the content and what content to teach by bureaucratic idiots who don't understand the first thing about effective teaching methods.

Meanwhile most of these people have gone to school SPECIFICALLY to learn about the art of teaching and what is most effective. Yet, they aren't allowed to apply this knowledge since it wouldn't increase test scores.

[–]igotitb4you 4ポイント5ポイント  (0子コメント)

Reminds me of my 1A high school. One year they got a whopping $25k to spend on technology, the next year $1 million for the football stadium.

[–]OverlordXenu 2ポイント3ポイント  (2子コメント)

There is also a huge problem with how we let teachers teach. Teachers are told what will be on the state or federal standardized test then pump Hours of useless knowledge into kids so they can score marginally better and get funding for the school. They are told how to teach the content and what content to teach by bureaucratic idiots who don't understand the first thing about effective teaching methods.

This is because of No Child Left Behind and Bush.

[–]NightmareIncarnate 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

Oh you mean No Child Gets Ahead?

[–]TheOSC 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

We can sit back and blame Bush all we want, but they have been pushing standardized tests on kids since well before he came into office. This isn't a problem that started with one singular guy, and is instead a systematic problem based on out of date ideology about what learning is and is supposed to be.

I don't claim to have any knowledge of what makes for a good lesson plan, but I can tell you my self and just about everyone I know, learn(s) best when given a tangible project requiring critical thinking. Testing in it's current form only tests memorization. If you want to see who really gets it and who doesn't, give a kid a project and see if they can figure out how to get from point A to point B. This is how most adults continue to learn in their job and pretty much every college course I ever took had some form of lab or class project ascociated with it.

That isn't to say that things shouldn't be tested on. Memorizing things is an important skill. However, it is useless without application and I would argue the majority of kids aren't learning to think critically since there is so little application covered in classrooms from K-12.

[–]NonaJabiznez 1ポイント2ポイント  (2子コメント)

I wish I could hug you right now. You are so spot on regarding the fact that teachers literally go to school to learn teaching methods, and then are forced to teach in a way that completely undermines their entire education because they have to teach to a specific series of tests instead of in a way that allows students to actually learn the most successfully.

[–]TheOSC 1ポイント2ポイント  (1子コメント)

My dad used to be a teacher for a middle school so I heard about all of the absurd things he and his colleagues had to deal with. I was also in AP and GT classes starting back in 1st grade where we were constantly pushed to prepare for the damn AP test but rarely got any practical application for the knowledge we were shoving in our heads.

It has made me quite passionate about the subject despite not being nor having any intention of becoming a teacher.

[–]NonaJabiznez 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

I've found that often families and roommates of teachers understand the issues almost well as the teachers themselves.

[–]abstractbull 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

Gonna have to push back on one part of your post: school funding from the state and municipality is based on attendance, not test scores. Lots of other things ride on those STAAR tests, but funding is based on warm bodies in the classroom. Other than that, I completely agree with you.

[–]Kierik 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

There is also a huge problem with how we let teachers teach. Teachers are told what will be on the state or federal standardized test then pump Hours of useless knowledge into kids so they can score marginally better and get funding for the school. They are told how to teach the content and what content to teach by bureaucratic idiots who don't understand the first thing about effective teaching methods.

This is the story of government. They introduce a system and you learn how to best game the system. I worked at a private sector company that used base line budgeting and it was the same thing. At the end of the fiscal year we would have 2 million left in our equipment budget so each group would go on a spending spree so that the money will be there the next year in case we need it. In the end you end up with 2-5 pieces of $100,000+ equipment that gets used once and then gathers dust.

[–]poepower 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

As a former member of a high school marching band. Agreed. Fuck sports in schools. They suck up the entire budget.

[–]ClericalNinja 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

I agree it's a little much but that probably isn't the school. Most likely that is the gym/locker room.

[–]mpd105 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

My thoughts exactly. How many people actually care about HS football?!

[–]stewsky 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

I don't think that's the school. I think that's their gym

[–]Hodr 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

So that's obviously massive overkill, but how in the hell did it cost 60 million?

[–]Adonej 0ポイント1ポイント  (1子コメント)

East Texan here.

Yup.

[–]Tallonius 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

Texas, All those guns and not one person with the intelligence to shoot the right people.

[–]devtastic 0ポイント1ポイント  (1子コメント)

I'm British so don't have any experience of this, but how much revenue (if any) does that bring in for the school?

I could imagine it being rented out as a venue or maybe get TV revenue if they televise the games.

[–]frisky_fishy 2ポイント3ポイント  (0子コメント)

A lot. That's something no one here is talking about, that stadium will pay for itself in the first 5 years it's open. You get 20,000 attending every game and they're probably making about $500k-1mil a game. And a lot of the money that went to building it was probably donated to the school for the sole purpose of building a football stadium like that, not to mention all the oil rich people who will be moving there in the future for their kids to play at Allen High School who will donate

The problem is...it's a shitty construction so it might not even last that long. And those people would go to games regardless of whether or not they had a slick new stadium to sit in

[–]Saith_Cassus 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

Christ. We were state champs in soccer and football, but our football field and our soccer field were one and the same. Just pull the nets out for soccer and remove them for football. I can see why you're upset about this stupidity.

[–]NonaJabiznez 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

That's for a high school? With the state of education today? They should be ashamed of themselves.

[–]seriouslees 6ポイント7ポイント  (0子コメント)

A fence? La-dee-da.

[–]ruttin_mudders 4ポイント5ポイント  (0子コメント)

Our football field was also our baseball field. During baseball season we would put up a snow fence for the outfield wall, and yes, I mean the baseball team when I say we. We also had to do our own grounds keeping.

[–]Greedos_Trigger 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

What is fence?

[–]hopsinduo 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

we didn't even have a fence in my school till some douche walked over the playing fields with a shotgun. This is the UK and in the countryside so not all that strange. And I'm old too...

[–]combatchuck 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

Shit, my high school had to play at the local stadium because we couldn't even afford a groundskeeper.

[–]BlackSuN42 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

wow, look at you with your fancy bleachers.

When I played high school sports you know who came to watch? My mom, and only if she was the one car pooling that week. That was the same for every high school in my city. The only people who cared about the team where the ones playing. I had fun and it did not take a 60 million dollar stadium.

Though a bit more water on the field would have been nice, grass got kinda dry.

[–]vzzzbux 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

My UK school got a sports hall, but it looks like a shed compared to a US school stadium.

Plus its available to the community for all sorts of activities, the school mostly used it for indoor sports. Football etc was played on a bit of grass with goal posts

[–]Merfen 14ポイント15ポイント  (2子コメント)

I will never understand the US's obsession with highschool sports. Around here it is just something the friends/family show up for and if you are really good at a sport(mainly hockey) then you get into a league that is completely separate from the school system. It just seems so strange to see movies/shows based around entire towns going apeshit for some 16-18 year olds in highschool playing football.

[–]frisky_fishy 7ポイント8ポイント  (0子コメント)

High school sports are only big in certain areas of the US, professional football only recently (last 30 years) surpassed college football in popularity

[–]makemejelly49 8ポイント9ポイント  (1子コメント)

This. Half the time, it's about padding the pockets of the district athletic director, not the actual teachers. I know because it's the same thing at my Alma mater.

[–]ohyesiam1234 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

How does the AD get the money? Are there kickbacks? How does it work?

[–]RhymesWithFlusterDuc 1ポイント2ポイント  (1子コメント)

And it's not just the highschool level either. In all but about six States, the highest paid public employee is usually a basketball or football coach at state university.

[–]OverlordXenu 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

Yeah but those programs can sometimes bring in a lot of money for the university. There was a big controversy with UCONN a few years ago, when they spent a bunch of money on the stadium and the coach. But the football program brought in triple the amount of money to the school… which, you know, helps fund the school.

High school is different though. Fuck that Allen Texas bullshit.

[–]Greedos_Trigger 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

HS football coaches make 100k+ a year? Friggin insane!

[–]Jutleyfication 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

I wouldn't say my school's spending on Football is as drastic as your school(s). However in northern Michigan, every school puts massive spending into the Football teams. They have cut many of the arts programs and smaller team sports funding and even stopped funding some all together. The ironic part is the tried to cut the band's funding and the visual imaging team funding by 50%, both being the two main supporting groups for the football team. The only reason my school still funds these two groups, (by the way i'm in both so this is why I am mad at football) is because we broadcast live games, interviews, hype reels and posters, basically we support them and bring in more money for the team because we advertise them so much. Website for school's sports This is the website I and two other, now graduated, students have made.

[–]StudyWorkLurk 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

http://i.imgur.com/1AVlV5F.jpg

Grew up with the Berry Center in Texas.

I think parents think that their kids are going to be the next sports superstar. Who cares if my kid passes algebra? My baby is gonna be famous!!! In all fairness (it's really not fair, the sports budget in public schools is insane) some of the sports are paid for out of pocket. No one paid for my cheer uniform or for my travel expenses. Well...my parents did. But the school sure as hell didn't fund it.

Also interned at a major city high school for my education degree. It was a magnet school, so they had no sports teams. Budgeting still sucked. Teachers were still overworked (salaried with no overtime working from 7 am - 8 pm at the school and then going home to grade etc.) and incredibly unhappy. Multiple times I had mentor teachers break down in front of me. Hell, I was just interning and I cried I was so tired and frustrated. And I was free labor. Needless to say, I got my degree and never looked back at teaching.

Also, it's not just school board members who raise hell over their kids not passing something. I had to sit in on multiple parent conferences where the parents demanded that their student's grade be raised. Sometimes it was from a C to a B or a B to an A. Parents actively push for grade inflation and underachievement. And the principals are just like "Whatre we gona do doe? Just do what they want!!!"

[–]3Omelettes 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

Also went through texas education, k-12. Our football team had a losing record almost every year, usually never better than 4-6, never broke out of district until fairly recently. We got to semis ONE time in football and they used it to justify dumping even more money into our shit football team. Almost all of the rest of the money is spent on our equally shitty baseball and basketball teams (who also haven't ever gone to state). New helmets, jerseys, shoes, pads, training equipment every year. We just built a brand new football stadium with a school attached, because MUH FOOTBALL.

Meanwhile, our golf team had gone to state for the last 18 or so years in a row and won a few times, our tennis team has won state a few times, our x-country team consistently wins state, and that's just our sports program. One act almost always gets to at least regionals, acadec is always at state, debate team has won at LEAST 4 state championships, but do any of these groups get any funding? Nope.

I get that football helps pay for other sports, but if we have a shit football team and the rest of our programs are powerhouses, maybe toss some money to the kids who aren't complete shit wagons at their extracurriculars. But no, the football team needs charter busses to all their games because the regular ones aren't good enough and our cheerleaders get brand new SUV's because riding with the band kids is too degrading or some horseshit.

[–]Barihawk 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

Graduated from Allen years ago. We had a stadium from the 70s that was falling apart. Over a thousand kids in music and dance had to perform in a theater built in the 70s. The state handed us a check for 150 million that could only be used for building things. Use it or lose it.

So we built a 71 million dollar stadium. And people raged. Nobody ever brings up the 74 million dollar performing arts center. Or the fact that Allen's schools have ridiculously high performance ratings. That all of our classrooms are high tech. Or that our teachers are paid over 100 percent more than the state average.

30 yeara ago the mayor of Allen sat down with the council in a town of 10,000 and a McDonalds and laid out a plan that would have them as one of the nation's fasting growing cities for over a decade. One of the priorities was on schools and academics. They intentionally ignored football for over a decade after they built the 170 million dollar new higj school because they refused to take bonds or raise taxes for a stadium. The grant from the state was offered and they took it.

Also, the cost of fixing the stadium came was paid by the contractors insurance.

So fuck you and get your facts straight.

[–]Iron-man21 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

And its not just the south. I'm in Minnesota, which is pretty much the opposite of Texas, and we also spent craploads on our sports. Our stadium's got crazy big bleachers and everything, and the field is bigger than the school. That's not counting the other fields as well. Its serious overkill.

[–]DooDooBrownz 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

this is terrifying and infuriating, I don't understand how people can live like that. School is about teaching, sports are tertiary. Texas and Florida man, we shoulda just let the south go back in the day. It's literally worthless.