| let's take the dollar figures, multiply by about a million (literally), and there you are with the defense contractors. A quick googling shows that military and educational spending are on par with each other (about $500B). [edit: circa 2004-2005] http://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/fed/10facts/index.html#not... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:U.S._Defense_Spending_Tren... But I guess the department of education is lying just like the BLS? I'll go for the higher dollar figures for things that don't provide anything for the country first, and get to small dollar figures in the education system about 10th. Really? It looks to me as if you are defending wasteful spending on education rather than simply criticizing it less than other wasteful spending: "...as long as the teachers' unions are the only ones sticking up for teachers...they're doing more good than harm." I don't care what the study says... That seems to be the trend here. |
For the last 8 years or so, national education spending has been pretty much flatlined, or even declining in real dollars. Military spending has been skyrocketing.
And yes. I don't believe kicking teachers in the teeth is a good idea. If you have a math degree, you can get paid twice as much to work on some non-functional crap for a defense contractor as you can as a teacher. That's not the same thing. Defense is far more bloated. Meanwhile, we're sliding on every international metric of education. I'd suggest reading Kristof today if you want some neat statistics.