Yeah? Maybe the states, cities and counties should do something about that, instead the superintendent just HAS to have the newest and best BMW. Books? Nah, the admin office needs iMac pros.
Properly funded? My brigade was black on authorized tourniquets and CLS resupplies until "miraculously" the DoD decided the manufacturers of what we did have made enough donations to the state that manufactured them. Nevermind that half of our MEDEVAC vehicles still don't have brake pads, and that we have 7 ACOGs for the entire Brigade. But Lord knows the decommissioned tank on display will get a full makeover in time for the next General inspection.
I wasn’t saying rip out all funds for the military. But should kids have to go to school where their desks fall through the floor? My high school had rats, opossum, no heating/ac, mold, etc. as a federal government with a federal education secretary some of the blame rests on them. We should expect better on all fronts not bogging down one because we feel more passionate for the other
Oh no, I'm not describing what would happen if the money was diverted, I'm talking about what is currently happening. My Brigade is pretty fucked. A lot of units are.
The federal government is distant, remote. They do not care. Bring the power back to the level that is meant to be accountable to, and made up of, the people effected. Faceless bureaucrat #25709 in a Washington office doesn't give two shits. Mrs. Jones on 3rd street who lives across from the local park might be inclined to see that the kids are taken care of.
I wish we could protest and petition and it’d all work out for the good of the people, but it really feels like the greed of others will end us all soon. I’m sorry you’ve had to go through that, but if it makes you feel any better the school I student teach at has a really great thing going on. They’re super focused on the improvement of classes and students, and from what I can see they use their funds accordingly
It’s all very complex. Much of that huge budget the military gets goes to the daily upkeep of personnel- and not to a particularly high standard. We’ve got 1.3 million active duty service folks not counting reserves and anyone who might be “off the books.” That means every billion dollars a year gives them about $760 per person a year. So to pay a salary of only about $1500 a month per person they’d need over $24 billion. That’s before medical, food, housing, and other “necessities.”
A pilot costs upwards of $10 million dollars on training and associated costs before they are ready to fly a fighter jet. Training an infantry soldier is generally closer to 6 figures. The money piles up real fast before we even start talking about fuel costs or of course- ammo/ordinance and materiel (including big things like planes etc.)
That money- the “big ticket” money- largely goes back to private businesses. It acts a subsidies for companies like Raytheon or Boeing who couldn’t justify keeping engineers and factory workers and such employed just to churn out jets for budget conscious airlines. There really is a HUGE amount of disguised social welfare to the military. The US military is the largest employer in the world and if you aren’t a criminal, are able, and can take simple directions they’ll give 3 hots, a cot, and a job to just about anything that can breath- for many folks it’s just about their only chance to get out of where they are and avoid flipping burgers- at least for a while- and it keeps US technology companies solvent and competitive when they otherwise wouldn’t be.
That said- many schools are woefully underfunded. I can’t blame it all on BMW’s and new laptops- it’s true some in power in education abuse their privileges- but it’s not as common as one might think and a $60k car divided by the thousands of kids in a district or even a school isn’t exactly going to be the budget breaker.
What’s more- there’s something to be said for competitiveness. It takes many of the same skills to run a school or a district as it does to succeed in corporate America. You could get a mid level management position at a start up and get a higher salary and more perks than being a principal or super etc.
So if we want talented, capable, driven people- as opposed to people who just couldn’t get a job anywhere else- we do have some
Need to incentivize them to become public educators. Even the military tries to be competitive. Your average E-X may not see much- but a couple grand for enlisting when numbers are low or a few hundred few grand for taking a specific specialty is better then Burger King or the auto parts store will do- and the job requirements to get in the door are about the same save the physical.
Pilots and administrators and high demand positions that have portability in the private sector tend to see better incentives. To get and retain top people on a large scale you need more than just passion. That’s true of teaching too. Rank and file teachers of lower grades don’t exactly have a lot of portability- but some do- and professors or administrators often could more easily get more lucrative work in another profession. So I’m not saying it’s right- but they try harder to retain those people. Ideally they’d want the best to educate and treat them that way- at all levels.
Properly funded? My brigade was black on authorized tourniquets and CLS resupplies until "miraculously" the DoD decided the manufacturers of what we did have made enough donations to the state that manufactured them. Nevermind that half of our MEDEVAC vehicles still don't have brake pads, and that we have 7 ACOGs for the entire Brigade. But Lord knows the decommissioned tank on display will get a full makeover in time for the next General inspection.
The federal government is distant, remote. They do not care. Bring the power back to the level that is meant to be accountable to, and made up of, the people effected. Faceless bureaucrat #25709 in a Washington office doesn't give two shits. Mrs. Jones on 3rd street who lives across from the local park might be inclined to see that the kids are taken care of.
Need to incentivize them to become public educators. Even the military tries to be competitive. Your average E-X may not see much- but a couple grand for enlisting when numbers are low or a few hundred few grand for taking a specific specialty is better then Burger King or the auto parts store will do- and the job requirements to get in the door are about the same save the physical.
Even if it is bland and soul sucking, no soldier is going to starve in garrison.