Here's an anecdote about government waste in public schools directly from a teacher:

2023: School district implements new curriculum and purchases 3 new textbooks for highschool ELA classes.

2024: Teachers overwhelmed by new curriculum + a mountain of tasks/requirements outside normal duties. Teachers only required to use 2 out of 3 textbooks (thankfully).

2025: Teachers again required to use 2 out of 3 textbooks. However, the district wants make space to purchase more textbooks. School librarian drops off textbook #3 outside all English teacher classrooms and directs them to hand them out to students. Students can then take them home and dispose of them.

Hundreds of textbooks per school, x5 schools, are being thrown away because the district has decided to purchase something else.

The best part is that admin is telling teachers they aren't pulling their weight (earning their salary) and to complete additional certs so the school can receive more government funding (research FTE model).

Maybe if textbooks weren't thrown in the trash, that money could have been used to pay teachers salaries....

I can expand on why FTE is not in the interest of teachers or students, but I'll save that for another time.