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> Studies repeatedly show that spending is uncorrlated with student outcomes That may be true of education budget in general, but what about these Oklahoma sch

• rayiner 9y ago
  Cutting to 4 days is a political statement, not a rational reaction to a budget shortfall. Faculty salaries make up the vast majority of school operating expenses. These teachers are not getting paid 20% less to work 4 days a week. So the savings are from ancillary expenditures (electricity, hourly workers, materials, etc.) and are going to be a lot less than 20% of total costs. The way a rational private organization would respond to such decreased revenue would be to have layoffs and increase class sizes. (While there is some evidence that smaller classes are on the whole better, we're be talking about a pretty small difference here, in a range where the expected effects would be small.)
  • c256 9y ago
    Oklahoma schools have been laying off teachers and increasing class sizes for many, many years. Typical class sizes there now are already 30-40% larger than the legal (state law, which has itself been adjusted upwards several times) limit. In most of these places, there are 3-5 class groups in a cohort (that is, there are 3-5 4th grade teachers). Even aside from the terrible impact on teacher attention, these classrooms have already run out of space to hold students -- students are already sharing desks that are explicitly designed for one student. Laying off a teacher and redistributing their 26+ students to the remaining 2-4 classrooms doesn't work any more.