The schools have tried to find ways of cutting back on expenses. Some of the latest non-so-funny jokes include photocopies and chalk.
Photocopies are a great concept in education. Some schools have people in charge of approving photocopies, and others in charge of making the photocopies. They interrogate teachers to make sure that they really need 53 copies and not 52 copies. Many requests are not approved, and as the school runs out of money (that's the second semester, folks), some schools do not approve any photocopies at all.
Now, let's think about the efficacy of this cutback. Two people draw salaries in order to save on photocopies. Plunk their salaries back into the system, and you can save, say, $1000/month.
Now let's look at the photocopies themselves. Each copy costs about 3� (that's for materials, not for staff time).
Do any calculation you like. This is going to save the school system? This is the way to save money?
I've heard arguments after a busy day, along the lines of "Do you realize that we made 2000 photocopies this morning?"
Yes, 2000 sounds like a big number. Now let's divide it by the number of classrooms, or by the number of students in the school. On that busy day, each student received about 12� worth of photocopies. That sounds like a rather small investment to me.
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