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According to politifact[1], education spending accounts for just 3% of all government spending (mandatory and discretionary). Using libraries as the target for

According to politifact[1], education spending accounts for just 3% of all government spending (mandatory and discretionary). Using libraries as the target for cuts so that we can feed the school-children, and citing logic, is ignoring a lot of other much more 'logical' choices we can make first. Military spending (16%), or Health spending, which is a whopping 28% because of our horse-by-committee system here in the US. We spend $10,348 per person [2], while Canada spends $6,604 per person [3], and the next highest countries reportedly spend $3,000 less per person than we do [4]. [1] - https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/aug/17/facebook-posts/pie-chart-federal-spending-circulating-internet-mi/ https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/aug... [2] - https://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Statistics-Trends-and-Reports/NationalHealthExpendData/NationalHealthAccountsHistorical.html https://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Sta... [3] - https://www.cihi.ca/en/health-spending https://www.cihi.ca/en/health-spending [4] - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/health-costs-how-the-us-compares-with-other-countries https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/health-costs-how-the-us-...

Kalium 8y ago
It's worth bearing in mind that as education is primarily a state responsibility, the vast majority of education spending is at state and local levels. Libraries also tend to be budgeted for mainly below the federal level and thus mostly don't show up in the federal budget. The Politifact article you have so wisely provided speaks solely and exclusively to the federal budget. You're absolutely correct that education spending at the federal level is ridiculously low! There just might be an important qualifier to that.
- Djvacto 8y ago
  That's a good point! Most of the funding does come from the lower levels of government, and is worth bearing in mind.
  - Kalium 8y ago
    As a result, it might be possible that statements such as "Education accounts for 3% of all government spending" might benefit from the wonderful opportunity to become more congruent with salient facts.
prolikewh0a 8y ago
Education is a wonderful return on tax investment that a lot of these people claiming "we spend too much on it" don't take into account. Just a quick example: How many of these libraries allow poor/low income/homeless to learn new skills or use their free internet to find jobs they wouldn't otherwise be able to find, in the end becoming tax paying contributing members of society? They are an invaluable community resource that absolutely returns what goes into it.
- Djvacto 8y ago
  I definitely agree.
- JumpCrisscross 8y ago
  > Education is a wonderful return on tax investment Eh, I see both sides of the coin. Education is a great place to spend money. But American governments are really good at throwing money at things that look like education, but do very little in terms of measurable gains. Case in point: my Cupertino public high school now has ten times the number of assistant principals as it did when I attended, but maybe 10% more students.
tooltalk 8y ago
This is wrong. Most education budget comes from your state or local (often in property) taxes, not from the federal gov't. According to US gov't spending, the fed spends $111B, but local and state about $1T in FY2018. (https://www.usgovernmentspending.com/us_education_spending_20.html https://www.usgovernmentspending.com/us_education_spending_2...). NYC has the largest enrollment in the country for instance and spends whopping $24K per pupil.

Kalium 8y ago

It's worth bearing in mind that as education is primarily a state responsibility, the vast majority of education spending is at state and local levels. Libraries also tend to be budgeted for mainly below the federal level and thus mostly don't show up in the federal budget. The Politifact article you have so wisely provided speaks solely and exclusively to the federal budget. You're absolutely correct that education spending at the federal level is ridiculously low! There just might be an important qualifier to that.

Djvacto 8y ago
That's a good point! Most of the funding does come from the lower levels of government, and is worth bearing in mind.
- Kalium 8y ago
  As a result, it might be possible that statements such as "Education accounts for 3% of all government spending" might benefit from the wonderful opportunity to become more congruent with salient facts.

prolikewh0a 8y ago

Education is a wonderful return on tax investment that a lot of these people claiming "we spend too much on it" don't take into account. Just a quick example: How many of these libraries allow poor/low income/homeless to learn new skills or use their free internet to find jobs they wouldn't otherwise be able to find, in the end becoming tax paying contributing members of society? They are an invaluable community resource that absolutely returns what goes into it.

Djvacto 8y ago
I definitely agree.
JumpCrisscross 8y ago
> Education is a wonderful return on tax investment Eh, I see both sides of the coin. Education is a great place to spend money. But American governments are really good at throwing money at things that look like education, but do very little in terms of measurable gains. Case in point: my Cupertino public high school now has ten times the number of assistant principals as it did when I attended, but maybe 10% more students.

tooltalk 8y ago

This is wrong. Most education budget comes from your state or local (often in property) taxes, not from the federal gov't. According to US gov't spending, the fed spends $111B, but local and state about $1T in FY2018. (https://www.usgovernmentspending.com/us_education_spending_20.html https://www.usgovernmentspending.com/us_education_spending_2...). NYC has the largest enrollment in the country for instance and spends whopping $24K per pupil.