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Comment on The USA spends $15k/student annually which is 30% higher than the global median. Why do U.S. schools have "fundraisers" where kids are incentivized to sell stuff to people?

kersploosh@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

Comparing things like this between countries is not straightforward. For example, Australia spends $14.1k per student while New Zealand spends $8.6k. That’s about 5.2% of GDP for both countries. From those numbers, would we conclude that Australia is overpaying, or New Zealand is underpaying, or that the two countries are comparable?

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/education-spending-by-country

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Speculater@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Damn, Noway being only 4% of GDP is shocking, because they also pay their teachers well and have great education in general.

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- kersploosh@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  I think that goes to my point about simple comparisons being difficult. Norway has a high GDP relative to its size, so 4% might be more than enough for their situation. You also have to account for things like the labor cost of teachers, which varies by country.
  
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  - Albbi@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    Also the sort of things the schools spend money on. I don’t know from experience, but I think US schools pay for police officers to be at the school. That seems crazy to me, and expensive.
    
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