U.S. Priorities and Educational Funding

I wanted to share some information about U.S. spending.

For 2010, the Recommended Discretionary Spending budget for the United States allotted 57% for the Military (Dept. of Defense, War, and Veterans Affairs) compared to only 4% on education.

It is often difficult to imagine large sums of money. For example, how much is 1.98 million, the amount of money the U.S. spent per minute on the military in 2009 (www.oneminuteforpeace.org)?

Or, 720 million, the amount of money spent by the U.S. per day on the Iraq War (www. afsc.org)?

This very brief video provides some perspective on what just one day of funding dedicated to the Iraq war could do if it were spent alternatively.



Finally, one of my favorite quotes about education:
"Education is a mirror held against the face of a people. Nations may put on blustering shows of strength to conceal public weakness, erect grand facades to conceal shabby backyards, and profess peace while secretly arming for conquest, but how they take care of their children tells unerringly who they are" (Comparative Methods in Education, New York: Hold, Rinehart & Windston, 1964, page 5)

These are just a few thoughts I had about funding and they certainly only provide my perspective on the issue. I would be interested in hearing your perspective or any thoughts you have on educational funding in the comments section of this post.



More Information:
These are just a few places for more information about U.S. spending. However, if you know of, or find, other websites that you have found helpful, please feel welcome to share them.

For more information about the monetary cost of the U.S. war in Iraq and Afganistan, go here:
costofwar.com
For more information on the Discretionary Budget, what it is, how it works, past, present, and proposed spending for 2011, check out these links:
useconomy.about.com
nationalpriorities.org