An iPod For Every Kid In Michigan 333
mikesd81 writes "Over at C|Net there is an article about Michigan spending $38 million to distribute an iPod to every kid, for learning purposes. From the article: 'On Thursday, House Democrats delivered a spending bill that includes the idea of putting $38 million worth of public funds toward outfitting every student with a digital music player.' The plan included measures to tax soda and satellite TV services to pay for it, among other things, to raise funds. If you recall, Duke University tried something like this with mixed results. How financially strained will Michigan residents feel about paying higher taxes to buy someone else's kid an iPod?"
Some points (Score:5, Informative)
Re:This is a horrible idea. (Score:5, Informative)
I have to agree with the idea of investing money in teachers instead of the students though.
I am so tired of hearing about how underpaid teachers are. It's like a mantra that people just repeat and repeat without giving a whole lot of thought to. While it holds true for private schools, public school teachers have it pretty good.
Teachers' salaries in Michigan are among the highest in the nation at an average $54,474/year. And that's with an average education just slightly higher than a B.A.. In my area the state university's Teacher's College has the lowest average SAT & GPA of all of the programs in the school.
In addition, they only work 9 months out of the year and have every weekend, holiday and summer off. If a teacher chooses to work the entire year (teaching summer school), like most of us, he/she would make $72K. Add the excellent bennies that most public school employees have and I have a hard time shedding too many tears for them.
Re:This is a horrible idea. (Score:3, Informative)
So please stop looking at what your government wants to tell you about teacher wages --- they're only reporting full-timers!
-rB
Misguided (Score:4, Informative)
On the other hand, even supposing they have plenty of money they still made a bad choice.
Based on my experience with a new video iPod I received as a present:
Re:Umm.. (Score:3, Informative)
At my (michigan) high school, we couldn't afford *PAPER* to stock the classrooms. If kids needed paper or a pencil at any time during the day, we were told with straight faces that we should go out in the hall and beg from friends.
Meanwhile, across the road, we approved a multi-million dollar rennovation to our football stadium (yes, "stadium") which was already much nicer than most of the ones in the area; two of the best-liked teachers in the school (who were also the newest) got fired to help fund that. And we had a $300,000 camera surveillance system which, when four guys broke into my friends car and lit it on fire, did NO good identifying them (and most of the cameras were in the parking lot, for that matter). Between 6th grade and 12th grade, the district-wide price of a school lunch hiked from $1.75 to over $3.00, and I'm confident that the volume of the lunch went down over that period.
I graduated last spring.
I'm not at all surprised to hear that we're giving kids iPods instead of text books.
Re:This is a horrible idea. (Score:4, Informative)
Having several public school teachers in my family and having taught myself for awhile, I can tell you first hand, your analysis of their economic situation is WAY off base. While teachers receive a decent salary, for many it is just that, a salary. They don't get paid for the countless hours they spend outside of school getting their work done.
You can't plan and organize a class during the time your teaching, you have to do it at home. And holidays? Please. Most of those days are spent fulfilling silly requirements for the state for continuing education seminars. Or grading 150 essays. Or going to the store to buy the materials your school district is too poor to pay for. Or buy supplies for kids whose parents don't have jobs and there's no support network to buy the kids backpacks or pencils. Never mind the afterschool meetings, the evenings calls with parents, the weekends spent in the school preparing for the next week...the list goes on.
Nevermind the fact that Michigan's public school teachers are probably some of the highest paid because of basically Oakland County. IIRC, Oakland county is in the top 5 richest counties in the country. There's a ton of money being tossed around there and honestly, it has some of the best schools in the state. Strangely, money seems to be buying a better education.
No one's asking public school teachers to be remunerated like brain surgeons, but at least create some incentives to excel at what you do. Seems like the harder you work in public schools, the more likely you are to get the jobs that there's just no pay for.
Re:You have got to be kidding.. (Score:3, Informative)
If 3 cents/gal for three years is 9 cents/gal, yes, Michigan is in trouble.
Re:You have got to be kidding.. (Score:3, Informative)
If 3 cents/gal for three years is 9 cents/gal, yes, Michigan is in trouble.