Charts: Education's Part Of "Everything Else" In Federal Spending

Sometimes it seems sad how little money is spent on education at the federal level -- in many cases, it's not even enough for education to get its own category.  

That's the case in this chart, via NPR, in which the light green represents the "everything else" category -- which includes education, has gone down over the past 50 years from nearly 15 percent to roughly 12 percent.  

No, I don't really care (or believe) that education is or should be a state and local issue.  

To me, that argument has always seemed quaint and ideological -- powerful, to be sure -- but neither realistic nor defensible.

I'd rather have a more equitable and uniform system than the current insupportable range of excellence and dysfunction.

And you?

 

Comments

[Education Nest]

Nice, I think this blog has covered diverse topics, can someone also provide relevant links related to this topic that covers similar information

[Sarah]

The issue is largely best summed up in the question: “what do we have to take away spending from to benefit education?”

The majority of money in congress these days is spent on public service programs (disregarding education) that no congressman would dare cut to increase cash flow for education. The problem is that it is physically impossible to satisfy everybody. Education, because the young cannot vote, is an item that can be chipped away at without upsetting the majority of voters... it’s not fair, but it’s what happens.