YNN: What Is The Cost Of The Free Equipment?
The givens:
- YNN demands a time slot of 12.5 minutes during the school day.
YNN's contract requires 90% of a school's students to watch 90% of the YNN broadcasts (Source: YNN webpage)
- Ontario secondary students are funded out of taxes at the rate of $4180 per student per year
The Calculations:
Let us assume:
- a school year of 180-190 days
- a school day of 304 minutes of instructional time
- a school of 1700 students (such as Meadowvale)
- a funding rate of $4000
The cost per student per day is: 4000 divided by 190 = $21.052631
The cost per student per instructional minute is: $21.052631 divided by 304 = $0.069252
The cost for 12.5 minutes of instructional time per student is: $0.069252 x 12.5 =$ 0.86565
The cost for 12.5 minutes of instructional time for 1700 students is: $0.86565 x 1700 = $1,471.605
The cost of 12.5 minutes for 1700 students over 180 days is: $1,471.605 x 180 = $264 888.90
The cost of a five year contract = $264 888.90 x 5 = $1 324 444.50
- 90% of this figure is: $1 191 999.05
- 90% of this figure is: $1 072 799.15
That's over a million dollars of tax subsidy to YNN for one school
YNN wants to sign up 300 schools before June, 1999.
$1 072 799.15 x 300 = $321 839 743.50
YNN is asking the Ontario taxpayer for a subsidy of almost $322 million for some pieces of "free" electronic hardware.
Calculation by Chris M. Worsnop, who is not a mathematician. Please check the arithmetic for yourself.
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