Chicago Mayor Praises Google For Buying Kids Microsoft Surfaces 137
theodp (442580) writes "Google earned kudos from Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel this week for teaming up with Staples to fund the projects of 367 of the city's 22,519 public school teachers on "begfunding" site DonorsChoose.org. "Everything that you asked for...every project that the teachers put on to help their students learn, exceed and excel here in the city of Chicago, you now have fully funded," Mayor Emanuel said. "Chicago's hardworking public school teachers are doing all that they can-and more-to support their students, but they need more help," said Rob Biederman, head of Chicago Public Affairs at Google. "We jumped at the chance to join with DonorsChoose.org and Staples to make Chicago's local classroom wishes come true." So what kind of dreams did Google make possible? Ironically, a look at Google Chicago's Giving Page shows that the biggest project funded by Google was to outfit a classroom with 32 Microsoft Surface RT tablets for $12,531, or about 6.5% of the $190,091 Google award. Other big ticket projects funded by Google included $5,931 for a personal home biodiesel kit and $5,552 for a marimba (in the middle of the spectrum was $748 for "Mindfulness Education"). In addition to similar "flash-funding" projects in Atlanta (paper towels!) and the Bay Area, Google and DonorsChoose have also teamed up this year to reward teachers with $400,000 for recruiting girls to learn to code (part of Google's $50 million Made With Code initiative) and an unknown amount for AP STEM teachers who passed Google muster (part of Google's $5 million AP STEM Access grant)."
Re: Politician thanks company for doing his job (Score:5, Informative)
Chicago Public School teachers are paid between $50-97K, based on education and time in job, plus pension and healthcare benefits.
http://www.ctunet.com/for-memb... [ctunet.com]
Re:5.5k for a Marimba? (Score:5, Informative)
How can a Marimba (which from a look at Google is similar to a Xylophone) cost so much money?
They are very large, professionally made musical instruments.
Check out the prices for other major musical instruments ... if you want to get any quality, they are not cheap.
Re:5.5k for a Marimba? (Score:3, Informative)
Good instruments cost money. My wife is a professional flutist and her flute cost $65k. I have a low-end trombone that cost $12k.
Re:No wonder MSFT stock is up (Score:2, Informative)
So, exactly the same as iPads or Android tablets.
Re: Politician thanks company for doing his job (Score:5, Informative)
I would argue the reverse, they are in GENERAL underpaid, but there are definitely some who are NOT underpaid: see Chicago.
Here is a list of median and starting salaries [teacherportal.com] for teachers. In my state, California, the median is $67k. In my county, Santa Clara, it is $79k. They also receive generous benefits, and summers off. Teachers are paid fairly well compared to other non-technical college graduates.