4 ms·

I guess this is what happen when a country spends ~8 times more in its military than in educating its people. ($574bn vs $68bn). Edit: as noted by a comment be

I guess this is what happen when a country spends ~8 times more in its military than in educating its people. ($574bn vs $68bn). Edit: as noted by a comment bellow, this is only the budget at the Federal Level

GuiA 8y ago
The military is, for many, vocational training, even though you may disagree with its outcomes (I certainly do).
- consp 8y ago
  I do not know the numbers but dare to say with great certainty that regular vocational training is orders of magnitude more efficient and thus lower in cost than the military.
- spamizbad 8y ago
  The vocational training argument is used quite a bit by military recruiters, but the reality is little of that training is valued on the job market, with a few exceptions. There are companies that do have veteran hiring preferences, but these are often social and economic justice efforts and do not take into account any actual skills.
TulliusCicero 8y ago
Source on the 68bn number? That sounds comically low. A quick googling says there's 50.7 million public school kids in the country, you're saying we only spend ~$1,300 per kid? Yeah, that's clearly wrong, you're either making that number up or are quoting the wrong number. And that's not even taking into account any university or adult education spending.
- TheSpiceIsLife 8y ago
  Source on the $68 billion number is probably Wikipedia: The Department of Education is administered by the United States Secretary of Education. It has under 4,000 employees (2018)[1] and an annual budget of $68 billion (2016).¹ More info at the Education Departments website.² I don't think that's the right number though? That's just what the Education Department spends each year administering education? The FY 2019 Education Budget Fact Sheet² goes on to say: "The Budget supports $129.8 billion in new postsecondary grants, loans, and work-study assistance to help an estimated 11.5 million students and their families pay for college So there's clearly more funds being directed to education than just the $68B. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Education https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Ed... 2. https://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/budget19/index.html https://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/budget19/index.htm...
  - darkerside 8y ago
    Most public schools are primarily supported by local taxes, supplemented by state and federal.
    - darkerside 8y ago
      I stand corrected. It's overall a fairly even split between federal and state. Higher income localities will have a larger ratio come from local property taxes, generally. Poorer neighborhoods rely more on share funding.
  - TulliusCicero 8y ago
    Right, that's just the feds, it doesn't include state and local spending (which I believe represent the majority of school funds).
tooltalk 8y ago
?? For education expenditure, US spends about $1.1T, of which only $0.11T comes from federal gov't and $1T from state/local gov't in FY2018. It's pretty much ALWAYS been the case that local/state gov't's pay for education expenses (often tied to property taxes). The national defense budget for FY2018 is $0.87T and comes out of the federal budget only. Comparing the two at federal level makes no sense. note: https://www.usgovernmentspending.com/year_spending_2018USrn_19rs2n_2030#usgs302 https://www.usgovernmentspending.com/year_spending_2018USrn_...
- jorge-d 8y ago
  You're indeed right. But the fact that the US Federal government always find money to feed its military while cutting the other departments [1] (including education) doesn't change the underlying fact that Education has a lesser priority than the Military in Washington DC. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_United_States_federal_budget#Department_and_program_changes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_United_States_federal_bud...
  - tooltalk 8y ago
    Where is your proof that the gov't is taking money away from education to fund the national defense? The US spending per pupil is second highest according OECD study (see https://data.oecd.org/eduresource/education-spending.htm https://data.oecd.org/eduresource/education-spending.htm), after a wealth city-state Luxembourg whose GDP per capita is $110K. Countries like Finland, South Korea which routinely rank top in various international tests and studies spend far less and achieve much better results than the US, so the problem here isn't just about funding.
  - sparrish 8y ago
    The Federal government has a constitutional obligation to defend the country. Education is not in the constitution and has always been chiefly a state and local burden.
    - jorge-d 8y ago
bko 8y ago
The US spent ~$575bn in 2014-2015 in expenditures for public elementary and secondary education [0] Additionally, the US spends more than almost all OECD countries [1] Please don't spread misinformation. [0] https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d17/tables/dt17_236.10.asp https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d17/tables/dt17_236.10.a... [1] https://data.oecd.org/eduresource/education-spending.htm https://data.oecd.org/eduresource/education-spending.htm

GuiA 8y ago

The military is, for many, vocational training, even though you may disagree with its outcomes (I certainly do).

consp 8y ago
I do not know the numbers but dare to say with great certainty that regular vocational training is orders of magnitude more efficient and thus lower in cost than the military.
spamizbad 8y ago
The vocational training argument is used quite a bit by military recruiters, but the reality is little of that training is valued on the job market, with a few exceptions. There are companies that do have veteran hiring preferences, but these are often social and economic justice efforts and do not take into account any actual skills.

TulliusCicero 8y ago

Source on the 68bn number? That sounds comically low. A quick googling says there's 50.7 million public school kids in the country, you're saying we only spend ~$1,300 per kid? Yeah, that's clearly wrong, you're either making that number up or are quoting the wrong number. And that's not even taking into account any university or adult education spending.

TheSpiceIsLife 8y ago
Source on the $68 billion number is probably Wikipedia: The Department of Education is administered by the United States Secretary of Education. It has under 4,000 employees (2018)[1] and an annual budget of $68 billion (2016).¹ More info at the Education Departments website.² I don't think that's the right number though? That's just what the Education Department spends each year administering education? The FY 2019 Education Budget Fact Sheet² goes on to say: "The Budget supports $129.8 billion in new postsecondary grants, loans, and work-study assistance to help an estimated 11.5 million students and their families pay for college So there's clearly more funds being directed to education than just the $68B. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Education https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Ed... 2. https://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/budget19/index.html https://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/budget19/index.htm...
- darkerside 8y ago
  Most public schools are primarily supported by local taxes, supplemented by state and federal.
  - darkerside 8y ago
    I stand corrected. It's overall a fairly even split between federal and state. Higher income localities will have a larger ratio come from local property taxes, generally. Poorer neighborhoods rely more on share funding.
- TulliusCicero 8y ago
  Right, that's just the feds, it doesn't include state and local spending (which I believe represent the majority of school funds).

tooltalk 8y ago

?? For education expenditure, US spends about $1.1T, of which only $0.11T comes from federal gov't and $1T from state/local gov't in FY2018. It's pretty much ALWAYS been the case that local/state gov't's pay for education expenses (often tied to property taxes). The national defense budget for FY2018 is $0.87T and comes out of the federal budget only. Comparing the two at federal level makes no sense. note: https://www.usgovernmentspending.com/year_spending_2018USrn_19rs2n_2030#usgs302 https://www.usgovernmentspending.com/year_spending_2018USrn_...

jorge-d 8y ago
You're indeed right. But the fact that the US Federal government always find money to feed its military while cutting the other departments [1] (including education) doesn't change the underlying fact that Education has a lesser priority than the Military in Washington DC. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_United_States_federal_budget#Department_and_program_changes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_United_States_federal_bud...
- tooltalk 8y ago
  Where is your proof that the gov't is taking money away from education to fund the national defense? The US spending per pupil is second highest according OECD study (see https://data.oecd.org/eduresource/education-spending.htm https://data.oecd.org/eduresource/education-spending.htm), after a wealth city-state Luxembourg whose GDP per capita is $110K. Countries like Finland, South Korea which routinely rank top in various international tests and studies spend far less and achieve much better results than the US, so the problem here isn't just about funding.
- sparrish 8y ago
  The Federal government has a constitutional obligation to defend the country. Education is not in the constitution and has always been chiefly a state and local burden.
  - jorge-d 8y ago

bko 8y ago

The US spent ~$575bn in 2014-2015 in expenditures for public elementary and secondary education [0] Additionally, the US spends more than almost all OECD countries [1] Please don't spread misinformation. [0] https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d17/tables/dt17_236.10.asp https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d17/tables/dt17_236.10.a... [1] https://data.oecd.org/eduresource/education-spending.htm https://data.oecd.org/eduresource/education-spending.htm