Education and War: A Glance At U.S. Spending (Part II)

A Business Model or Bust?
Sure Duncan and Obama hold the reigns for now and talk a good game about education reform, while generating a plan to meet the current agenda. An agenda that consistently refers to education as an "economic imperative."  


In Duncan's November 4, 2010 address to UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), Duncan introduced "The Vision of Education Reform in the United States" with a running metaphor to our current economic instability.

With all this talk of "economics" in education, we sure do pinch the wallet when it comes to funding. What kind of business model makes money without spending money? 

In order for the "business model" in U.S. education to work, there has to be an increase in funding. The U.S. spends pennies to the dollar needed for the current agenda planned for national education reformation. Many of our competitors out-perform us for a reason.


How Do We Compare Globally?

I found myself sorely disappointed and upset. In my research I kept finding numbers and percentages that appeared inflated in comparison to what I viewed on the budget tables at the whitehouse.gov site.

In part one of this posting, I listed numbers that were displayed on budget tables in the millions. How is it that there are people out there saying that we spend more on Education than defense? What part of 32,409 million is bigger than 636,537 million? Again I did not add the defense budgets of four major agencies listed in my diagram in part I.


This is a prime example of why the U.S. was ranked as 27th in world math scores and 33rd in reading. Basic mathematics ran away when digital dependency infected the masses. Literacy does not just include the ability to phonetically read aloud the words viewed, but comprehending those same words.


We live in a society filled with misinformation and misguided notions. People walk around believing everything they hear without verifying the facts. 


Here are the facts with regard to U.S. spending. Millions of Americans have lost their jobs, millions of Americans struggle to survive in wars far from home and millions of children slowly ascend through a failing system riddled with all sorts of funding issues. 

What can we do? Start lobbying? Create a tea party movement? Ask for budget cuts in military spending and have the top officials take much needed money away from our troops, so they can keep their air conditioned tents when they are at war? Or maybe put a much needed salary cap on high government positions? 


I don't know the answer, but I do know one solution: place a higher bet on education.

Education and War: A Glance At U.S. Spending (Part I)

When did it happen? When did education in the U.S. become a failing business, and why hasn't the government offered a bailout to education?


The government has offered a significantly small bailout to our failing schools, yet the bailout comes with some very thick strings attached to the funding. I find it interesting how education, the key cornerstone in a society's foundation, has the hardest time receiving funding in the U.S.


Looking At the Budget

Banks and military institutions receive their money on a platter absent of strings, while an agency that should matter the most struggles to attain funding comparable to other departments.

I went to The Budget at the whitehouse.gov website to see what kind of numbers we are working with in the U.S.

The 2011 Fiscal year budget adds up to a total 192 page pdf download. (Just under two percent of the health care reform document, so more people should be able to get through the budget.)
Here are the numbers for Education (in millions):

• 2009 -- 32,409
• 2010 -- 56,024
• 2011 -- 71,479 (proposed not approved)

Next we have the numbers for Defense (in millions): 

• 2009 -- 636,537
• 2010 -- 688,041
• 2011 -- 718,795 (proposed not approved)

As I researched budgets dating back to 2001, when the war in Afghanistan began, I noticed something that tickled my curiosity a couple years back. How well do you know your government organization charts?

Money Matters in Defense 

You know, the layout of government that tells you what branch is under what department and etcetera. While looking into how much money is being spent on war, I had to think about the whole picture and not the pieces. To prove my point, I have a basic diagram below that describes what I'm talking about.

All four agencies can be viewed as branches under the D.O.D with their own budget allowances.

(Note: Any monetary disclosures regarding national intelligence in the U.S. are considered a threat to national security and are not available to the public. Just imagine the very large numbers in the billions.)


While I outlined the spending differences between education and defense above, I did not add into the defense amount the budgets for the four agencies described in my diagram above. Of course there are other agencies that have "defense" and "discretionary security" buried in their organizational charts, but the point of my research begins with education and our children.


How long will it take our government and many of the U.S. citizens to wake up and smell the gunpowder under our biggest land mine yet? The increasing failure of education in the U.S. 

Please continue reading in Part II