Putting quality teachers to work (or retaining them) is also job creation. What prevents folks on the other side of this discussion from seeing that?
Jalen Ramsey is not directly responsible for hiring teachers by donating money to the school system. Where as if he is a business owner he is. Again direct vs. indirect tangible benefit from the benefactor. It is not really up for debate. I think it’s a simple disagreement in that some people feel that giving money to a school system may garner better long term results than being a direct employer. This may be true or not. However, as stated myriad times in multiple ways, there is no denying that as a business owner you have a more direct tangible benefit to offer on an individual basis.
let me try it again. Let’s say I volunteer time to teach kid’s how to read or I can donate the same amount of time I would have spent tutoring in my hourly wage. If I tutor kids there is a DIRECT benefit individuals can receive. If I donate money it is indirect and may not directly benefit the students and certainly not all of them. In tutoring (or hiring) every student I spend time with is having the resources spent directly in them). Not even trying to argue against people’s opinions on anything else.
I have been drawn into some other philosophical discussions regarding the much harder to quantify value of education, public systems, etc...These are all different issues that some people seem to internalize for personal reasons, I guess but really have nothing to do with my initial statement.
however, I agreed to play along and Ironically, I think almost everyone on here agrees the educational sustem in the this country could be better. And I don’t think anyone has even tried to disagree with the FACTS that literacy rates, graduation rates for disadvantaged youth has gotten worse over the years. Also, not a single person has debated that in the public school systems, the finds allocated for students is significantly higher than private schools (on average as of course there are elite private schools that most of us could not afford to send our kids to, so let’s acknowledge that).
Also, when I mentioned that again on average , across the country, the greatest expense to the tax base these days is paying out pensioners. I even tried to head off those that would say these teachers deserve it (I agree and wrote this multiple times but reading comprehension is not so great on the TC). I merely pointed the fact out that for every dollar of tax revenue spent today on pension liabilities for retirees that is one less dollar that has a DIRECT benefit on any student TODAY. Again, not even remotely debatable, it is a fact. I also tried to point out the hisotry of this phenomenon that started about 40 years ago. It is not teachers’ fault that local superintendents negotiated with union bosses for lower pay now for more pay in retirement. It was and is simply a kick the can down the road proposition by superintendents that know they will no longer be in office to deal with the bill when it comes in time to pay (somebody else’s problem).
I mention all of these things to point out how the conversation really devolved from my original post but I am happy to engage in friendly correspondence and even some discord.
my initial post was merely saying I can understand (I have said at least “I think” to infer I could be wrong in posters intent) about enterprise vs donations. I am also an economist and have coincidentally studied these philosophical issues.
But my point was NEVER to go down the path so many wanted to for obviously feeling very passionate about the subject of education efficiency from a political perspective. So I was game for that. I also acknowledged in my initial post that I was proud that Jalen’s donation and it is a very magnanimous gesture. I would never fault him for however he sees fit in trying to help out the community fincancially. It’s weird what a polarizing environment we are in today that leads people to infer so many negative things because it ties back to someone’s politics.
Not disagreeing with you at all (to the contrary) that more money for the school system COULD lead to more jobs directly in the system or from the suppliers if they use the funds for tangible goods or construction. Conversey if any portion of the money goes towards pension liabilities or over due pay raises the employment opportunity factor becomes diluted as INDIRECTLY maybe the additional income can support more jobs in what the teachers’ spend the money on.
AGAIN for the LAST time. A business owner will have more DIRECT impact on an individual than giving money to a 3rd party SYSTEM. Never have I debated which one is “better” as it’s all subjective. Ironically most have taken what I wrote on factual information and added subjective informational retorts coupled with absolutes. Absolutes should really only be used for facts like the myriad I have pointed out that few actually outright ever tried to deny because they are facts unless stated other wise (like when I write , I think in parentheses).
As I have stated a number of times it is simply velocity of money...
