Spending

Here are some somewhat dated figures:

Spending for 1999-2000

By far, the greatest part of education revenues came from nonfederal sources (state, intermediate, and local governments), which together provided about $346 billion, or 92.7 percent of all revenues. The federal government contribution to education revenues made up the remaining $27 billion. The relative contributions from these levels of government can be expressed as portions of the typical education dollar. For school year 1999–2000, local and intermediate sources made up 43 cents of every dollar in revenue, state revenues comprised 50 cents, and the remaining 7 cents came from federal sources.

I recently reviewed the numbers for another discussion and the %s seem to hold consistant. The feds give a little less than 8% toward a public educated child's tuition.

Cheacking out the National Education Association, I found (link in pdf):

The average PA teacher salary is $52,200. Better not hear another peep about teachers underpaid at $50,000 for eight months of work. Spare me the "they work on lesson plans during the summer." Anyone who knows teachers (or human nature), knows that's bunk.

PA also spend an average of $8,609 per student. Federal share approx $688. Why folks look to presidents to fix national education problems is beyond me. If 92% of your money came from two sources and 8% came from a third, how much attention would you give #3?