If only the Air Force had to have bake sales...

[makattak]

And our schools were "fully funded"!!!

http://www.cato.org/blog/addressing-critics-purportedly-no-good-very-bad-chart?utm_content=bufferd20a4&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer



CLEARLY the answer to all our schooling issues is MORE FUNDING!!!11!

(Honestly, I don't think any more comments are necessary on that chart. However, the link goes on to respond to all those claiming the chart doesn't say what it says.)

[MechAg94]

I assume that is trending % increases. 

From what I see and hear locally, it is not just pay and administration, but contractors and school board politicians using it as a piggy bank with bonds issued to build all sorts of stuff that may or may not be needed.  My mother says she has heard people she knows talk about how it would be great to build that next project for the schools yet they even consider that their property taxes will be going up to pay for it.

[KD5NRH]

From what I see and hear locally, it is not just pay and administration, but contractors and school board politicians using it as a piggy bank with bonds issued to build all sorts of stuff that may or may not be needed.  My mother says she has heard people she knows talk about how it would be great to build that next project for the schools yet they even consider that their property taxes will be going up to pay for it.

That's a lot of it; every five years or so the local ISD wants to do tens of millions in building upgrades that they promise will meet the needs of the students for 40 more years.

There's also the low-return technology costs; students are learning less from SmartBoards now than we did from chalkboards a couple decades ago, and a lot of the other tech spending is on iPads and accessories, which won't teach the kids squat about doing an Excel sheet or Word document that potential employers want.  I will admit that it opens up some other teaching methods, but we produced a lot of well educated geniuses with hardcopy books, pencils and paper.  I wonder if the few that are coming through our schools lately are because of the teachers or in spite of them.

[roo_ster]

The old saying, "Lies, Damed Lies, and Statistics" might be amended to, "Lies, Damed Lies, and Lying About Statistics" or "Lies, Damed Lies, and Too Dumb To Understand Statistics."

Or just "Disqualify, Disqualilie."

===============

[roo_ster]

http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2013/08/federal-spending-by-the-numbers-2013


Defense spending from 9% of GDP in 1963 to 4% in 2013.

GDP in constant 2009 dollars:
Dec 31, 1963    3.60 trillion
Dec 31, 2013    15.92 trillion

Defense Spending 2009 Dollars
1963 $324B
2013 $637B

Population
1963 189,241,798
2010 310,232,863

Spending per capita
1963 $1712/capita
2010/2013-ish  $2052/capita

Increase % per capita
17%