There’s just not enough money for education, right?  Did you know that in Japan, Taiwan, and other countries whose students outperform American public schools by orders of magnitude, there are no janitors, and the kids do cleanup of the schools?  Not our kids.

Aaron Short in the NY Post:

School custodians are cleaning up — in the hallways and in their paychecks — because the city doesn’t want to hire enough of them.

Custodians took home an average pay of $109,467 in the 2013-14 school year — and 634 of the city’s 799 custodians earned more than $100,000 in salary and overtime during that time, city payroll records show.

That’s because of the city’s 1,500 school buildings, 238 have no full-time custodian on site, up 74 percent from the 137 empty slots in 2012, according to data from the custodians union.

The arrangement is forcing nearly one-third of the city’s 737 custodians to cover two schools — and reap additional pay.

So why not hire more janitors and avoid the double pay for overtime?  Maybe it has something to do with all the perks, including retirement arrangements, that don’t seem to figure into the average pay reported above.

Did I mention that in other countries that beat the pants off our schools, the kids do the janitors’ jobs?

Hat tip: iOTW Report