we should give public education/teachers the same amount of money

[ensho]

as we give to the pentagon


education is more important then an empires war machine

[DrDan]

1. and have "common-folk" learn about evolution and global warming?

the RWers will never allow that.

[NoNothing]

2. Actually, we already do

Considerably more, in fact.

[ensho]

3. you will have to prove that to me

nt

[NoNothing]

5. Not a problem

http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/downchart_gs.php?year=1900_2014&view=1&expand=&units=p&fy=fy11&chart=20-total_31-total&bar=0&stack=0&size=m&title=&state=US&color=c&local=s

The thing is you can't just look at federal spending, since the vast majority of educational spending is done by state and local governments.

[Tatiana]

6. I doubt it. Our poorest neighborhoods receive considerably less funding than wealthier suburban

areas.

[stray cat]

8. mostly paid by property taxes - the solution is people moving back to the poor neighborhoods

and enrolling the kids there - if people will really get behind the idea of equal education instead of a buy out based on where you can afford to live

[Tatiana]

11. This would solve the problem in many urban areas. n/t

[MadHound]

9. Actually no, we don't

The total amount of education in this country stands at approximately 584 billion dollars. The total for Defense Department spending is at 663 billion, and the Defense Department is not the be all and end all of military spending. For instance, our nuclear missile/bomb fleet comes in under the aegis of the DOE, which gets its budget separate from the DoD funding. Total funding of all military comes in at over 1 trillion dollars, double what we spend for education.

[NoNothing]

10. It all depends what you want to include

You are using only K-12 figures on the education side, and things like VA spending and homeland security on the defense side. On the other hand, if you count defense appropriations (as the OP specified, "to the Pentagon") and include things like pre-K and tertiary education spending, you get a different picture.

Either way, they both account for a significant chunk of total expenditures.

[Igel]

4. Why?

The "Why?" intended to be parsed as, "Why just public education?" Why not just have it be "K-12 education"? (Esp. since every student taken out of public schools and put into private schools increases the amount of money spent per pupil left in the system and increases the "education spending pie" by a decent amount.)

The last time I tracked down the numbers--I think it was for f/y 2008--the amount of money spent on K-12 education (private and public, federal/state/local) was about the same we spent on the DOD. It's just that the DOD number is fairly easily calculable while the overall education spending actually means looking at things like state-level spending.

Post-secondary education was extra. Then again, the DOD expenditures didn't cover non-DOD raising of private armies.

[stray cat]

7. does that include the salary to match the front line soldiers?