Opus 2013-75: Cheap Babysitting

Have you ever done the math on the cost of education compared to a good babysitter?  The public schools are really a good deal.

Lets assume that you have 30 students for each teacher.  Lets assume that the teacher has a salary and benefit package that is $100,000 a year.  If you don’t like my numbers, put in your own, I think it will still work.

Teachers have students for about six hours a day.  They teach five days a week.  Lets see what the math is on that.

    30    students
    x 6    hours a day
    180     billable babysitting hours a day.

Most teachers are responsible for students about 180 days a year.

    180
         x 180
         32,400    billable hours a year

Now, divide the cost by the billable hours.

    100,000/32,400

It comes out to about $3.09 an hour.  It has been a long time since I had to hire a baby sitter but even twenty years ago we were paying a lot more than that.

So education is really a bargain.  And you don’t have to drive the teacher home after school.

homo unius libri