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Comment by acheron | Hacker News Reader

Education funding is highest in places that have the worst results. Try again.

Yes for example is its very well known that Angola has a top tier education system while Swedish people can barely read or count

Well, if you actually look at the data:

https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/cmd/education-exp...

We spend far more than most countries per pupil, for much poorer results

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/pisa-scor...

It's pretty clear that while spending is a factor, it's probably not the biggest one. The countries that seem to do best are those that combine adequate funding with real rigor in instruction.

I posted elsewhere you can't just compare across the globe like that. You have to think about cost of living and especially opportunity cost. In the US, teacher pay lags behind similarly educated professionals, which means they get stretched thin and the best with options will leave.

Ok, so then look at teacher salary by country:

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/teacher-s...

We're higher paying than a number of countries with higher cost of living that (whether fairly or unfairly) pay lower than us.

I stand by my assertion. I don't think our per pupil spending is the major bottleneck in our performance. I think our educational system needs fundamental reform (just like everything else in this country)

You need a different analysis. Maybe more like this

https://www.census.gov/library/visualizations/interactive/te...

Or this:

> While U.S. teachers make 58% of their counterparts’ salaries, Finnish teachers make 92% of the salaries of similarly educated professions. This trend follows with other countries ranked highly in the World Happiness Report. Teachers in Denmark (ranked #2 in World Happiness) make 81% of their counterparts’ salaries and teachers in Sweden (ranked #4) make 74% of their counterparts’ salaries.

https://www.ednc.org/perspective-how-the-worlds-happiest-cou...

I mean, I don't deny that teachers are paid less compared to other fields, but that is actually pretty universal among occupations that provide the worker with a higher sense of purpose. You can see the same thing in social work, the non profit sector and elsewhere. Whether that's truly just is an entirely different question than 'is there a direct relationship between teacher pay and student achievement' and looking at all other sources I've provided, there clearly is not.

> Everybody should be as unhappy as me

I'm not from the US and I think that attitude is fucked up. You'll get your wish -- the US has been steadily dropping on the lists of "World's Happiest Countries"[1]. But luckily I don't need to do anything. Nature will teach you what a simple text box cannot. Eventually you guys will ruin all your important institutions & become deeply unhappy & hit rock bottom & start meditating or something.

[1] https://data.worldhappiness.report/chart -- Fit a line and you can extrapolate by ~2030 China will be a better place to live. That's really not that far away. That attitude is not "universal".

Gee golly, I guess you sailed right past

>Whether that's truly just is an entirely different question

I save myself a lot of heartache and consternation by 'accepting the things I cannot change' to crib the serenity prayer

As a general rule, it's unethical people who like to ignore ethical issues for their own benefit.

And there's plenty I can do. Studying the issue & preparing a move, to name two. You want to roll over cause that's your lack of ethics.

It won't work out for you. Set a reminder for 2030.

New Mexico (where I live) is dead last in education out of all 50 states. They are currently advertising for elementary school teachers between 65-85K per year. Summers off. Nice pension. In this low cost of living state that is a very good salary, particularly the upper bands.

I don't think it's a money issue at this point.

Because they use whole language theory (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whole_language) instead of phonics for teaching how to read.

Just flatly not true.

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