MIL (teacher in Florida) just told me there is only 1 IT guy who manages 17 locations, 80+ teachers, etc at her work place. Oof

My wife is a teacher. HS Chem. Public schools. Los Angeles, so absolutely mind boggling huge. The thing is they have money. I know that sounds weird to say, but they have money for projects. They could have *mostly* modern, well run IT with good systems and good policy & process. They money for those things exists. What they don't have are good people and the major part of "the why" is simple. School admin who hold the purse strings are **largely** poorly trained, poorly educated megalomaniac fiefdom builders whose primary goals are personal control over as much as possible. Admin as a whole has, at its core, an adversarial relationship with "staff" (their word). Staff are everybody else, teachers, IT, security, maintenance. You know. The little people they pay to do things like teach and clean and have systems running. The relationship between the teacher's union and admin is VERY telling to observe. Wife is part of the union negotiating team (they wanted teacher reps) so we have a front row seat. Admin will fight the union tooth and nail for any and every perceived cost overrun, necessity and validity DO NOT matter. I'll give you a prime example. The health insurance. Our PPO plan is going away next year. The good health care plan (that we PAY for) is going away because it's too expensive. No other reason. No consideration that it provides the best whole family care. It's too expensive. It was the union's biggest (and really only) concession to admin demands. Admin's position is 100% money and budget. Admin do not care about hiring other than required state credentials (important in teaching, but not for security, IT, facilities). They are largely penny wise, pound foolish and they hold all the purse strings, define all the hiring roles. So they skimp on all the salaries. What do you get when you offer 20% less for IT roles and you don't really care about the qualifications of who you hire? You get sub-par employees. People who couldn't really hack it anywhere else. People who aren't bright enough to realize IT for a school is a shit job and that's why it was so easy to get. And then they absolutely work you to death.