• Dave@lemmy.nzM
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    11 months ago

    $2B over 5 years, with 1/3 going to schools?

    So $666M split among 374 high schools (let’s assume only high schools as there are almost 2,000 primary schools). Let’s add the composites as well, as I believe these generally include at least some of the high school years. 193 of those brings us to 567 schools.

    That’s about $1.2M per school. Or about $235k per year. I’d guess that since senior counsellors earn about $100k, this should be plenty to cover one qualified school counsellor per school including both salary and extra admin costs, with extra left over so large schools could have multiple.

    I think the next problem to solve is finding another 600 counsellors, but I think you may be right that this would be an effective prevention step. It’s enough money that you could bump pay by $30k as incentive and still be well within budget.

    • absGeekNZ@lemmy.nz
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      11 months ago

      Prevention is my goal.

      But the 600 extra counselors is a major issue. But I would also establish a specialist team of 6-8 to take on difficult cases per region.

      This approach; would pay dividends for generations.

      • Dave@lemmy.nzM
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        11 months ago

        The next challenge is how to keep accountability in politics while also incentivising polititions to think beyond the next election cycle…