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The United States spends more money on education per student than just about any other country in the world[1], and it has been growing quite rapidly over time[

The United States spends more money on education per student than just about any other country in the world[1], and it has been growing quite rapidly over time[2]. America is not a penny pincher when it comes to education. One graph beats many paragraphs of anecdote by someone with an axe to grind. Anyway, I flagged this article because I'm hoping to see less politics on Hacker News. [1]http://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/fed/10facts/edlite-chart.html http://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/fed/10facts/edlite-chart.h... [2]http://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/fed/10facts/edlite-chart.html#3 http://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/fed/10facts/edlite-chart.h...

moultano 16y ago
Do you have any stats that break down where the money goes? That's probably the most interesting statistic.
- wisty 16y ago
  My guess, text books, IT support, and admin.
- kenjackson 16y ago
  Here are some stats on teacher pay: http://www.epi.org/economic_snapshots/entry/webfeatures_snapshots_20080402/ http://www.epi.org/economic_snapshots/entry/webfeatures_snap... http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/09/teacher-pay-around-the-world/ http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/09/teacher-pay-aro... So while we may spend more on education, the delta is not going to teachers. I suspect admin is a big part. There's a big controversy here in Seattle, the second in recent years where there was either large corruption or tens of millions of dollars that disappeared (the last ended up in the super of the school district losing his job -- the Seattle Times has asked for the current super to either resign or be fired).
rtaycher 16y ago
This is my own theory but I would guess the price of education goes up with the average wages for a country. In the US there are a lot of high paying professional jobs . I suspect this is one of the reason many communist countries seemed to have decent educational systems(compared to how many things they are bad at).
lutorm 16y ago
On average, the US is not a penny pincher. Given the local nature of school funding, it would be interesting to see how the median, or the 25th percentile to be even more harsh, compares to those countries.

moultano 16y ago

Do you have any stats that break down where the money goes? That's probably the most interesting statistic.

wisty 16y ago
My guess, text books, IT support, and admin.
kenjackson 16y ago
Here are some stats on teacher pay: http://www.epi.org/economic_snapshots/entry/webfeatures_snapshots_20080402/ http://www.epi.org/economic_snapshots/entry/webfeatures_snap... http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/09/teacher-pay-around-the-world/ http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/09/teacher-pay-aro... So while we may spend more on education, the delta is not going to teachers. I suspect admin is a big part. There's a big controversy here in Seattle, the second in recent years where there was either large corruption or tens of millions of dollars that disappeared (the last ended up in the super of the school district losing his job -- the Seattle Times has asked for the current super to either resign or be fired).

rtaycher 16y ago

This is my own theory but I would guess the price of education goes up with the average wages for a country. In the US there are a lot of high paying professional jobs . I suspect this is one of the reason many communist countries seemed to have decent educational systems(compared to how many things they are bad at).

lutorm 16y ago

On average, the US is not a penny pincher. Given the local nature of school funding, it would be interesting to see how the median, or the 25th percentile to be even more harsh, compares to those countries.