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Comment by BudVVeezer | Hacker News Reader

My sister was Teacher of the Year for LAUSD, and if she doesn't spend her own money on supplies for her students, they simply have nothing to write on or with. She has never had a class size under 35 that I'm aware of. Yet, her job is on the line based solely on the test scores of her kids, many of whom are mainstreamed special Ed kids. In what way is this a recipe for success?

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That's pretty much what my wife goes through. Her kids have iPhones, Blackberrys, Android phones, (a lot of them are dealers) yet they can't bring a notebook or a pen/pencil, she's got to supply them or nothing would be done. She's teaching 9th grade Biology and Earth Science, yet her students are often 10th, 11th and 12th graders who fail year after year. Some of the 'kids' are 20 years old. 3 of her classes are special ed who's she's suppose to have a special ed co-teacher, but doesn't have one. As well as class size with over 35 students. She's expected to get them all to pass the NY State regents, nothing else matter. One of the biggest problems is students don't show up consistently and class length is only 40 minutes.

The Arts School in downtown L.A. was originally budgeted as a $70 million project, then raised to $120 million before construction began, then finished with a final cost of $573 million.

Giving LAUSD more money to manage seems like a bad idea to me.

It would be interesting to see where the money really goes. Cause it's NYC it's sure not to the teachers or for getting the students books. Not that the students would even use the books, and whatever books they get they never return at the end of the year.

I have read somewhere that the ratio of administrators to teachers goes up constantly. That would also explain the rise in college tuition. More and more administrators and consultants to pay. Wish I could find hard numbers somewhere. But as with all political discussions real data is hard to find..,

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