The Off Topic Topic

[Jacob]

Um our colleges do focus on that.  Look at the top research Universities in the world: scoreboard.  People do not donate billions to UT Austin because they love our research (well some of them do), when the freaking football team wins donations to education skyrocket.  School pride and all that.  How often do Germans open their checkbooks and make annual donations to Technische Universität München?

Aren't most German universities publicly funded?

[Valmy]

Aren't most German universities publicly funded?

Um we are only talking about Public Universities here.  The discussion is about the pay of football coaches by public universities.

[Valmy]

I am not much of a libertarian, but I don't think the state should pay sport coaches. That doesn't strike me as an essential task of the government.

Our culture is very different on this point.  We consider sports just as vital as other forms of education, and education is considered an essential task of the government.

However the idea was never that it become this huge deal where coaches and athletic directors are being paid millions.  That came about because of TV and it is looking more and more certain these teams are going to be pro for all intents and purposes sooner rather than later.  It was a nice idea while it existed I guess, sort of like the Olympic ideal.

[Ed Anger]

Goddamn commies trying to ruin my Saturdays with your commie bullshit. Leave my football alone.

[CountDeMoney]

Let's not get carried away there, Ray Ray.

Miami sure as shit doesn't send money from athletics to academics. But then Miami is also a private institution.

I actually have a degree from Notre Dame (had I registered at EUOT before I enrolled I might have been bradyquinn4heisman). Notre Dame sends money to academics.

Nobody gives a rat's shit about where you said you went to school, no matter how many times you say it.

[Jacob]

Aren't most German universities publicly funded?

Um we are only talking about Public Universities here.  The discussion is about the pay of football coaches by public universities.

Ah... I assumed that if a university relied on alumni donations, it'd be private. Do universities in Germany collect alumni donations? I'd be surprised if that was the case.

[LaCroix]

Ah... I assumed that if a university relied on alumni donations, it'd be private.

i'm not sure if every public university (in the US) requests donations from alumni, but i think a significant number do. mine sends me free envelope labels with their requests

[Baron von Schtinkenbutt]

So, no more PBS and national parks Max?

The primary purpose of the National Park system is ecological preservation.  That many are open for recreational use is a side benefit and pays for maintenance or the entire park infrastructure, not just the recreational bits.

[Baron von Schtinkenbutt]

Ah... I assumed that if a university relied on alumni donations, it'd be private.

i'm not sure if every public university (in the US) requests donations from alumni, but i think a significant number do. mine sends me free envelope labels with their requests

As far as I know, the only post-secondary schools that do not solicit donations are those which are tightly coupled to local school boards.

[alfred russel]

Ah... I assumed that if a university relied on alumni donations, it'd be private. Do universities in Germany collect alumni donations? I'd be surprised if that was the case.

Probably not so much. In order to get lots of alumni to donate, you need to foster a deep and lifelong attachment to the university. The sort of attachment that usually needs something like a successful and popular football team to grow.

[Tonitrus]

So, no more PBS and national parks Max?

The primary purpose of the National Park system is ecological preservation.  That many are open for recreational use is a side benefit and pays for maintenance or the entire park infrastructure, not just the recreational bits.

It may evolved into that in many cases...but the original purpose, while being about protecting the land, was also very much about doing so so that they may be enjoyed (i.e. that recreation bit).

[Josquius]

Ah... I assumed that if a university relied on alumni donations, it'd be private. Do universities in Germany collect alumni donations? I'd be surprised if that was the case.

Probably not so much. In order to get lots of alumni to donate, you need to foster a deep and lifelong attachment to the university. The sort of attachment that usually needs something like a successful and popular football team to grow.

hmm.....that makes sense. The way American alumni donate to their old uni always confused me. I'd rather my uni burned to the ground than I give it any money.

[LaCroix]

hmm.....that makes sense. The way American alumni donate to their old uni always confused me. I'd rather my uni burned to the ground than I give it any money.

i went to a university whose sports programs were a joke. iirc, pretty much every team was awful, and we got annihilated in almost every game. there was no school spirit whatsoever. contrasted with my university was NDSU, which has a very successful sports program. you could really see the affection people had for that university - not just the students but the whole town. even on our campus, far more people wore NDSU apparel

[MadImmortalMan]

I also want it to burn down but I would like the football team to continue and win.   

[CountDeMoney]

Here's something all you teacher-haters can feel supremely giggly about:

BloombergBusinessweek
Housing Prices
Not a Single Home Is for Sale in San Francisco That an Average Teacher Can Afford
By Karen Weise February 27, 2014

This week, the real estate listings website Redfin published a startling statistic. In the entire city of San Francisco, not one home or apartment is available on the market for under $220,000, which the site says is affordable for a typical teacher in the city. Statewide, just 17 percent of homes for sale are affordable for teachers. With the tech industry booming and the Google Bus quickly becoming a cultural icon, it's not a surprise that San Francisco faces an affordability crisis. But how can it have become so dramatic? The answers boil down to two factors: San Francisco's hot real estate market and dwindling income for city teachers.

First, the real estate market. This is pretty straightforward. San Francisco is the single least-affordable housing market in the country, according to the real estate website Trulia (TRLA). As Trulia's chart shows, the median sales price has more than doubled since 2000 and is up 11.5 percent just in the past year.



Now, on to the teachers. If you look at Redfin's data, you'll see that San Francisco has the second-lowest median salary of teachers for any county in California. That's despite having a higher cost of living than other areas in the state and a thriving private sector, thanks to the knowledge economy. Redfin used data from 2012, and I've pulled stats for the city that included the 2012-2013 school year, when the average teacher's pay rose about $4,000. (Like many cities in the state, San Francisco boosted some education spending last year, in part because districts had more revenue from a new statewide tax voters approved in 2012.) When you take inflation into account, even with that boost San Francisco's teachers earned 12 percent less in 2013 than they did in 2002.



Why are teachers paid so much less than elsewhere in the state? One clue could be that San Francisco's high costs and mediocre school districts cause families to flee the city. Indeed less than 11 percent of city residents are between 5 and 20 years old, compared with 20 percent of the population nationally. The big drop-off in San Francisco's younger residents generally happened in the 1970s and has fallen more slowly since, but the share is down about 10 percent over the past decade.

Having fewer residents with kids may make taxpayers place less value on funding education, which could lead to relative pay reductions (as opposed to just hiring fewer teachers). This is a cyclical problem: Families leave the city, in part, because of poor schools, which tends to reduce investment and the allocation of resources to improve the district.

Whether the affordability squeeze in San Francisco ever eases will partly depend on whether the housing market cools off—and whether the wealth pouring into the city ever translates to higher pay for middle class workers, including the city's teachers.