this post was submitted on 27 Nov 2024
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[–] [email protected] 1 points 14 minutes ago

Grant money can only be used for specific things, unfortunately.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 hours ago (2 children)

Schools everywhere are replacing projectors with tvs because projector bulbs can be upwards of $200 replaced every other year (not counting those absent minded teachers who leave their projector on overnight); and the cost is rising. TV prices, for their lifespan, cost less than replacing bulbs and the price is dropping. Projectors also have double the energy usage and generate heat.

As for teachers only using them as welcome screens, I don't know. More grant money toward training and resources instead?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 26 minutes ago

Also, the finance department going "what do you mean a screen needs a consumable?!"

We're looking at swapping the conference room projector for a screen now. £200 bulb, £600 for a mahoosive TV that's much brighter.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 37 minutes ago

My guess is that this is talking about flat screens used in common areas for announcements and whatnot. Not screens in rooms.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 5 hours ago (3 children)

It's not just in education.

Retail pharmacy. My company ~2 years ago decided to start offering clinical services to patients - great! In my store, they walled off part of what used to be the stockroom, expanding our waiting area and giving us a dedicated vaccination room (previously in a sectioned off part of the waiting room) and a health care room (where all the new services went).

To support these new services we got all kinds of really fancy tech - 20 inch 1440p (?) touchscreens for check-in. Very high end blood pressure machines. Two (2) computers in the healthcare room for the one (1) healthcare provider, because, you never know. These changes can be seen in a majority of this company's stores.

If you haven't guessed by now, they've decided to not go through with those clinical services. All of the tech we bought (if I had to estimate, very conservatively, $15k USD for my store) is either reboxed or installed but powered off on the sales floor, has been for ~12-18 months, and has no plans of ever being repurposed or sold. The vaccination room serves zero additional purpose to the area we had before, and the "healthcare room" is now used as the pharmacy stockroom (since, y'know, they removed part of the stockroom to build it). This is all ignoring the money spent on actually building these rooms (with lighting and climate control nicer than the rest of the store) and profits lost during construction.

But we don't have enough money for raises, or enough hours to functionally staff the pharmacy 🙃

[–] [email protected] 3 points 35 minutes ago

If it makes you feel any better an executive got a bonus for having the great idea and another got a bonus for realizing it was dumb and pulling the plug before more money was spent.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 hours ago

The most efficient economic system ever conceived

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 hours ago

One time annuitised vs recurring costs.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 hours ago

Don't forget trump bibles 69$ each

[–] [email protected] 42 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

I've heard that some grant money is earmarked to be spent in stupid ways. "Here's $2M for technology" means they can put a Threadripper on every desk, but not replace the desk, or the 30-year-old textbooks within it.

I'm surprised there aren't an ecosystem of crooked vendors that know ways to help cashout such grants. Buy these garbage PCs for $1000 each, and we have a "surplus trade in programme" to buy them back for $600 cash each in 3 months, giving you no-longer-restricted cash to actually fix the hole in the cafeteria floor that's already swallowed Mrs Baxter's third grade class"

[–] [email protected] 32 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

I’m surprised there aren’t an ecosystem of crooked vendors

I bring good and a bad news.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 hours ago

Ed tech has some of the worst fucking products.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

Most grants I've seen require that you keep the devices for a specific time (5-10 years generally, probably depends on region). Our storage space is full of long outdated tech that we can't toss or use in any realistic capacity.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 hours ago

My school back in the day used its funds to teardown the old huge playset and replace it with an even bigger caged football/basketball field. Needless to say, we went out a lot less during lunch hours since.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

my old School got a glass Tunnel for 20 meters one year after i left, mY current School has so little money we had 3 hours a day, for 2 weeks because one teacher is sick. Nonetheless we still have 1 of these unusable "smartboards" for every 1.5 rooms or so. This is Germany btw

[–] [email protected] -3 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

There needs to be a community budget.

Also parents get pissed when you take all their money meant for education and you use it to feed other students.

Also upkeep on a $200 TV is far less than paying an administrative assistant to change signs and calendars. Manual labor is expensive. A TV attached to a calendar is not.