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I'm not actually sure that's "plenty". For comparison - we currently pay more per year to keep our 1 year old child in daycare (roughly ~15,000/yr) and for day

I'm not actually sure that's "plenty". For comparison - we currently pay more per year to keep our 1 year old child in daycare (roughly ~15,000/yr) and for daycare we literally only expect them to keep him alive & clean. And this is considered a "cheap" daycare. Most places in our area (the much cheaper south-west side of Atlanta) still charge more than 1600/m or almost 20k/yr. We certainly don't expect them to be significantly enriching his education experience (although the simple exposure to other kids will likely do that at this age). We also don't expect the employees to have any sort of educational/vocational training to excel at teaching, or expect them to perform any sort of off-the-clock work (ex: grading, class prep, parent-teacher meetings, etc). I expect them to be mostly high-school graduates with a background check. So I look at that number, and while it's certainly a large number if you're making 1 teacher manage 30 kids, I don't really know that it's a number that results in viable conditions to truly "educate" children. I strongly suspect that education is highly dependent on the family at home, and that's becoming harder to meaningful do as more and more families are forced to have both parents work full time.

millzlane 4y ago
>I strongly suspect that education is highly dependent on the family at home, and that's becoming harder to meaningful do as more and more families are forced to have both parents work full time. This is a big part of it. Education doesn't stop when the school bell rings.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- notch656a 4y ago
  But I was told by HN the state is responsible for providing an education for children. If the parent is responsible instead, then I'd like to be able to opt out of paying taxes for schools and instead send my kid to a private school.
lotsofpulp 4y ago
>For comparison - we currently pay more per year to keep our 1 year old child in daycare (roughly ~15,000/yr) and for daycare we literally only expect them to keep him alive & clean You cannot compare the per child costs of taking care of a kid who cannot go to the toilet themselves or eat by themself with a kid who is much more self sufficient. The person taking care of a baby (or 4 babies) might need to be much less qualified than an AP physics teacher in high school, but the labor (and liability) costs do not necessarily scale exactly with the minimum qualifications needed to be an AP physics teacher versus a daycare teacher.
- horsawlarway 4y ago
  I think comparing the costs between the 5 year olds in our daycare and the 6 year olds entering first grade is entirely fair. Our daycare gets more expensive as the child ages - not less. > The person taking care of a baby (or 4 babies) might need to be much less qualified than an AP physics teacher in high school, but the labor (and liability) costs do not necessarily scale exactly with the minimum qualifications needed to be an AP physics teacher versus a daycare teacher. And this - this is exactly what I'm contesting. Why is it we're ok paying someone who should be able to teach complex and technical skills to children (high school physics) barely more than a high school grad who is only qualified to tend to infants? Worse - why do we let class sizes balloon to the point where one-on-one interactions are incredibly hard? One requires considerably more skills, considerably more education, and frankly much more work (and I'm not talking about the one tending the infants). Yet they're expected to effectively teach class sizes of between 25 and 32 (which is the technical max for the state - but I've frequently seen this balloon as high as 45) Yet the daycare worker is making almost the rate of an intro physics teacher (17/h vs 19/h). And the very top most earners are making only 30/h. Being a manager at a McDonalds is FAR more lucrative (avg of 98k vs the avg physics teacher in GA at 43k). That should be a giant fucking red flag. The numbers aren't even that far off - There are ~500 McDonalds locations in GA, and ~525 public high schools. Each McDonalds location has ~3 managers (shift manager, assistant manager, store manager) And they all make more than intro physics teachers. (from 50k to ~100k) When flipping burgers is literally more lucrative... I fail to be compelled by your argument.

millzlane 4y ago

>I strongly suspect that education is highly dependent on the family at home, and that's becoming harder to meaningful do as more and more families are forced to have both parents work full time. This is a big part of it. Education doesn't stop when the school bell rings.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
notch656a 4y ago
But I was told by HN the state is responsible for providing an education for children. If the parent is responsible instead, then I'd like to be able to opt out of paying taxes for schools and instead send my kid to a private school.

lotsofpulp 4y ago

>For comparison - we currently pay more per year to keep our 1 year old child in daycare (roughly ~15,000/yr) and for daycare we literally only expect them to keep him alive & clean You cannot compare the per child costs of taking care of a kid who cannot go to the toilet themselves or eat by themself with a kid who is much more self sufficient. The person taking care of a baby (or 4 babies) might need to be much less qualified than an AP physics teacher in high school, but the labor (and liability) costs do not necessarily scale exactly with the minimum qualifications needed to be an AP physics teacher versus a daycare teacher.

horsawlarway 4y ago
I think comparing the costs between the 5 year olds in our daycare and the 6 year olds entering first grade is entirely fair. Our daycare gets more expensive as the child ages - not less. > The person taking care of a baby (or 4 babies) might need to be much less qualified than an AP physics teacher in high school, but the labor (and liability) costs do not necessarily scale exactly with the minimum qualifications needed to be an AP physics teacher versus a daycare teacher. And this - this is exactly what I'm contesting. Why is it we're ok paying someone who should be able to teach complex and technical skills to children (high school physics) barely more than a high school grad who is only qualified to tend to infants? Worse - why do we let class sizes balloon to the point where one-on-one interactions are incredibly hard? One requires considerably more skills, considerably more education, and frankly much more work (and I'm not talking about the one tending the infants). Yet they're expected to effectively teach class sizes of between 25 and 32 (which is the technical max for the state - but I've frequently seen this balloon as high as 45) Yet the daycare worker is making almost the rate of an intro physics teacher (17/h vs 19/h). And the very top most earners are making only 30/h. Being a manager at a McDonalds is FAR more lucrative (avg of 98k vs the avg physics teacher in GA at 43k). That should be a giant fucking red flag. The numbers aren't even that far off - There are ~500 McDonalds locations in GA, and ~525 public high schools. Each McDonalds location has ~3 managers (shift manager, assistant manager, store manager) And they all make more than intro physics teachers. (from 50k to ~100k) When flipping burgers is literally more lucrative... I fail to be compelled by your argument.