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They may spend less per child on education, but they probably spend more on social services. Read the paragraph in the article that starts with "it's almost un

by autarch 15y ago

They may spend less per child on education, but they probably spend more on social services. Read the paragraph in the article that starts with "it's almost unheard of for a child to show up hungry or homeless." Many American students face huge barriers to learning that originate outside of school. They are hungry, chronically ill, don't have a home, don't have a quiet space to study, don't have supportive parents, etc. No amount of school reform will fix those problems. Check out season 4 of The Wire for a very grim account of a school in a very poor area.

rdouble 15y ago
There's some truth to that. However, most of the USA is not like season four of The Wire, and still manages to have public schools that are mediocre at best. If it's valid to use fictional schools from TV shows as examples, my experience is that schools in small to medium sized cities in the USA are shockingly similar to the one on South Park.
- ZeroGravitas 15y ago
  The main writer of that series was an ex-inner-city schoolteacher and based those stories on his own experience. "Burns has said that he stumbled into teaching with little preparation because of the intense demand for teachers in inner-city schools.[2] Burns taught seventh grade. Psychologically, he compared the experience of teaching to the Vietnam War.[2] He found the experience profoundly challenging because of the emotional damage that the vast majority of his students had already experienced before reaching the classroom. He saw his primary role as instilling caring behavior in his pupils.[2] He felt his major impact was in giving the children an example of an "adult who's consistent, who's always there, who always comes through with what he said, then that's a new world for them."[2]" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Burns http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Burns
  - rdouble 15y ago
    As a former student in a small town elementary school, I have little doubt Matt Stone and Trey Parker based the South Park school on their own experience growing up in Colorado. Mr. Hand is a bit much - but just a bit. Putting up with bizarre characters, listening to inappropriate personal life details, tolerating dumb lessons and watching videos in class were all standard occurrences.
_delirium 15y ago
Some amount of American school spending also goes towards addressing those problems, not really towards education, which can distort what the "education spending" figures mean. For example, depending on which figures for education spending you use, it might include the free school lunch program, which is really more a kind of anti-poverty program that happens to be distributed via the schools. In addition, beefed up school security, anti-gang programs, and counseling programs are the school acting as policeman and social worker more than as educator. So it could be (but I can't say for sure) that Finland's lower per-student education budget still includes more actual spending on education, if other parts of the government take care of the other issues better.
- henrikschroder 15y ago
  Finland has free school lunches for everyone, and I guess counseling as well, but the other issues you mention aren't handled by schools as far as I know.

by autarch 15y ago

rdouble 15y ago

There's some truth to that. However, most of the USA is not like season four of The Wire, and still manages to have public schools that are mediocre at best. If it's valid to use fictional schools from TV shows as examples, my experience is that schools in small to medium sized cities in the USA are shockingly similar to the one on South Park.

ZeroGravitas 15y ago
The main writer of that series was an ex-inner-city schoolteacher and based those stories on his own experience. "Burns has said that he stumbled into teaching with little preparation because of the intense demand for teachers in inner-city schools.[2] Burns taught seventh grade. Psychologically, he compared the experience of teaching to the Vietnam War.[2] He found the experience profoundly challenging because of the emotional damage that the vast majority of his students had already experienced before reaching the classroom. He saw his primary role as instilling caring behavior in his pupils.[2] He felt his major impact was in giving the children an example of an "adult who's consistent, who's always there, who always comes through with what he said, then that's a new world for them."[2]" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Burns http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Burns
- rdouble 15y ago
  As a former student in a small town elementary school, I have little doubt Matt Stone and Trey Parker based the South Park school on their own experience growing up in Colorado. Mr. Hand is a bit much - but just a bit. Putting up with bizarre characters, listening to inappropriate personal life details, tolerating dumb lessons and watching videos in class were all standard occurrences.

_delirium 15y ago

Some amount of American school spending also goes towards addressing those problems, not really towards education, which can distort what the "education spending" figures mean. For example, depending on which figures for education spending you use, it might include the free school lunch program, which is really more a kind of anti-poverty program that happens to be distributed via the schools. In addition, beefed up school security, anti-gang programs, and counseling programs are the school acting as policeman and social worker more than as educator. So it could be (but I can't say for sure) that Finland's lower per-student education budget still includes more actual spending on education, if other parts of the government take care of the other issues better.

henrikschroder 15y ago
Finland has free school lunches for everyone, and I guess counseling as well, but the other issues you mention aren't handled by schools as far as I know.