Taxpayers Alliance thinks that schools spend too much on teachers

[HPFA]

The TA (funded by God knows who) thinks that schools are wasting money on teachers rather than educational resources:

The biggest item of expenditure of schools in England was teaching staff costs, with schools spending an average of £783,326 last year. This is more than 11 times the amount spent on learning resources for children.
This is significant for a number of reasons. It highlights the fact that pay for salary is the biggest item of expenditure for schools in England. It also reveals just how much more is being spent by schools on teaching staff costs than on educational resources for children.

Don't know about you but I always thought that teachers were the "educational resources" in a school.

Sorry, should have included link to full report:

d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/taxpayersalliance/pages/9466/attachments/original/1528883418/Schools'_spending.pdf?1528883418

Surely that is as it should be. The vast majority of money should go on staff. I'm sure it's the same on the NHS.
Whatever they'd found it would have been a headline.
Oh hang on that's not the story is it bloody teachers, overpaid, slackers etc etc.

And hopefully they've realised that money spent on teachers does not = money in teachers' pockets?
Just making sure...

Educational resources are pretty useless without teachers. I wonder who is funding them as well.

Oh I don't know. Just give them a few worksheets

We are desperate for teachers. We have overseas trained teachers asking for huge salaries (via agencies that cost tens of thousands) and we have to pay or we have kids in classrooms alone. Improve working conditions and the shortage will fall.

A good teacher is the most expensive and valuable learning resource that schools provide.

Expenditure low on hard resources because teachers in the main make their own.

Allegedly one of the most influential pressure groups in the UK!
In September 2010, it was reported that the TaxPayers' Alliance was organising an event sponsored by several American lobbyists and groups involved in the Tea Party movement, including the Americans for Prosperity Foundation, the Cato Institute and the Heritage Foundation. The Alliance has also sought advice from the Tea Party leadership

Money comes from rich Tories' donations. Has about as much clue about teaching as the government ministers it supports. The biggest cost in almost every business / company is its workforce! Why would schools be any different?

I'm sorry, but if staff costs aren't where we spend most money in schools, we're going even more wrong as a nation than I thought...

Or, in other words, What have the Taxpayers Alliance been smoking?!

From the report “Although we are not calling for teacher pay to be cut, our analysis in this paper shows that teachers have been enjoying a pay rise and so there is no need to increase their salary further at this point in time.”

How generous of them. They do realise that there’s a teacher shortage don’t they?

“As there is scant evidence that teaching assistants improve the educational outcomes for the vast majority of students, a considerable amount of money should be cut from the education support staff bill. However, as there is evidence which suggests that teaching assistants do have a positive impact on pupils with special educational needs, some of the money should be reallocated to this area.”

Um, who exactly do they think teaching assistants are currently working with? We’ve got hardly any left at my school, so evidence that they have a positive impact on kids with SEN would mean hiring more of them.

I suspect the children of the author of the article (if he has any) do not go to a state school. And he sounds a bit thick for someone working at Oxford Uni, I would have thought someone intelligent would know better than to compare teacher pay to the pay of the average person.

Who do they think plans the lessons? Who do they think marks the books?

Labour costs are almost always the highest institutional cost.

"It is therefore clear that schools in England are spending vast amounts of money on staff costs and other items of expenditure."

Er.... yes!

Well that's a waste of time and money making that report! Where did that money come from to pay for that?!

I suppose the biggest cost in the police is the police men and biggest cost in fire service is the fire men. I know just spend all the money on empty police cars and fire engines cos that's more important!

I think they are spending too much money on generating these reports!

Tax payers alliance are a right-wing pressure group. Ignore.

Or women squiglet

What exactly should the education budget be spent on if not teachers? Including recruiting and training, not just salaries.

You could have lovely shiny buildings with amazing resources... but without teachers skills to deliver the curriculum and engage children in learning, nothing much would happen.

You have got to wonder what they think the resources are!

I'm really not sure how they could have expected any other result?

Perhaps the Taxpayers Alliance would like their own children taught by someone else? Someone cheaper? Maybe children could just do a few e-learning packages, that would save a fortune?

What next - Study shows sky is blue?

Enjoying a pay rise? Hell - I got 1%. And considering it's been frozen for several years and yet inflation is higher than that I'm actually considerably worse off than I was, say, five years ago.

And I'm pretty sure I earn less than the dick that wrote this.

The agenda here is —everyone back to the workhouse— adopting a model that relies more on technology.

So more and more teaching being delivered remotely or via apps/computer programmers. The people actually is the classroom, lower skilled, lower paid, essentially just babysitting an iPad/kid farm.

There have been some models like that rolled out in developing world countries, out of necessity (for example in African countries with huge numbers of orphans and working age populations heavily affected by HIV epidemic, so class sizes compared to available teachers just off the scale).

This what free school/academy chains and hugely restrictive curriculum standardisation and control is aiming towards,

Big tax breaks for companies that supply the tech hardware and develop the programme/software. Then a partnership with an academy chain, which spreads rapidly due to reduced overheads and economies of scale.

Then provision of education becomes a voucher to chose your private provider (and of course there will be “top-ups” for a higher standard of provision, longer hours, better facilities).

Quite quickly no public sector education system. Any school buildings that are in decent nick sold off for a song, possibly rented out to private education provider as premises by some savvier councils. Other sites sold off to developers for housing.

Potential for a huge amount of central control on what is taught too. Just update the code.

James Tooley

Yes, this is how the TPA would like state education to be - children taught off computers with minimal supervision from minimum wage staff.

Of course their own children won't be educated like this - they will be in private schools with one teacher to 10-15 children.

stop it lapsed : you're scaring me!!