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by zeveb 2572 days ago
> We could slice 10% (maybe less) off the military budget and pay for college for everyone, forever.

According to Wikipedia, 'the approved 2019 Department of Defense budget is $686.1 billion.' In the 2015–2016 academic year, colleges and universities spent $559 billion (https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=75). So 10% of the military budget would pay for a little over 12% of collegiate spending.
2 comments
servercobra 2572 days ago
That $559 billion is including all the money the government (states, mostly?) already gives to schools that they then spend. GP was talking about (I assume) covering tuition, which is estimated between $50 billion and $75 billion from the articles [0] I can find. That lines up with ~10% of the military budget.

[0] one example: https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2016/07/28/487794394/hillary...

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cr0sh 2572 days ago
> In the 2015–2016 academic year, colleges and universities spent $559 billion

Talking out my nether regions here - but is that broken out in any way?

Basically - I'm wondering how much of that spending is on actual academics vs non-academic activities?

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