School buses in Canada can be different from one company to the next
. Generally the same though. Yellow/orange with black stripes or something. Green vinyl seats inside. Windows that open a little bit if they do at all.
Again, it will vary by jurisdiction but here in Alberta there is no such thing as an included school lunch. Students either pack their lunch, go home or if their particular school has a cafeteria, the offerings will be ala carte and must be paid for. My DS went to private school and while they had no facilities of their own, they did bring in catered lunches (pizza, tacos, subs, etc.) twice a month. These had to be pre-ordered and paid for at the beginning of the school year and generally ran around $7.00/meal. In general, junior high and high school students are free to leave campus and purchase their own lunches if there are outlets nearby.
Public schools in California are required to provide free Breakfast and Lunch effective with the upcoming school year.
We have a daily snack program that should be coming back in September. It‘s been put on hold for a few years due to Covid restrictions. Parents are asked to pay $20 per term. If parents don’t pay, their children still get snacks.
No free meals but most provinces do pay their teachers a wage that reflects the worth of their role (median salaries at 5 years experience). I always catch my breath when you talk about how little they are paid where you are. I guess every jurisdiction has it's priorities though, and that's fair enough.
Our DS went to a for-profit daycare centre for a time when he was small. The hours were 7:00 am to 5:00 pm and all the meals and snacks were provided in the fees.
Yes - there are various breakfast and bag-lunch programs in Calgary provided by churches and other charitable organizations. The service is available for the asking; no means-test required. My company volunteers as a group several times a year putting meals together.
Pay is poor for teachers in some places of the U.S., but not in the district I live in, IMHO. But teachers here are Unionized and the teachers union is one of, if not the most, powerful unions in California.
Now families have to qualify and it’s pretty hard to qualify. A family of four has to make under around $40,000 . This is the time families need assistance. Now they have to worry if their parents put money on their card to eat lunch. It’s super sad . It’s a poor district . Shame on the superintendent for not helping her district . She is out of touch making 280K . Ridiculous. Every day last year my son told me stories of depressed kids . Now this . They are kids . It’s such a hard time for so many .
The head-to-head comparison is valid because each professional gets paid and spends in their local currency. $85,980 is equal to $1,358,435 Mexican Pesos, but what difference does that make?
Schools here have been frustrated with the student response to free lunches for years. One district says only half the kids eligible for free lunches would sign up for them. While I am sure that some within the district are truly concerned that kids not go hungry, the reality is their food service people have found a way to prepare meals that meet all the federal standards for less than the Federal reimbursement, so it is a way for the district to make money. Not sure exactly how many kids get the free lunches, or could get them, but this district has 40,000 students and the district makes over a million dollars profit a year on the current program.We are in a suburb of Chicago . The last two years school lunch was free because of the pandemic. You didn’t need to qualify. This year congress voted against it . Our superintendent could have applied for a grant but didn’t .
My local teachers are over paid in the district where I live. Don’t get me wrong, I believe that teachers in the US deserve a great salary (and equal for both genders). My grandma was a teacher. But my taxes go up for a school system that is not raising its educational standards.
Well, as they say "the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence". For many in my industry with school age children switching to teaching solves a huge child care issue for them. Being on the same schedule as their children when you need to find childcare is tough when kids are out of session for 15 weeks a year, and you only have 2, 3 or 4 weeks vacation a year. My last company did offer 5 weeks vacation but you had to work there 30 years to qualify. That fact that the pay is better is just icing on the cake.
Same in BC. Kids bring their lunches, no school lunch programs (maybe in some rural school districts they have it?) We live in Surrey which is the largest school district in the province (yes, bigger than the city of Vancouver). We also don't have 'lunch rooms' which I think is common in US schools?
Teachers are unionized in Canada as well. I can't speak to other provinces but the BCTF in BC is VERY vocal.
