Sick of D.C.

Education: Just the Facts

Collective Spending

* In 2017, federal, state, and local governments in the U.S. spent $952 billion on education. This amounts to $7,545 for every household in the U.S., 4.9% of the U.S. gross domestic product, and 15% of government current expenditures. These figures do not include:

  • land purchases for schools and other facilities.
  • some of the costs of durable items like buildings and computers.
  • the unfunded liabilities of post-employment non-pension benefits (like health insurance) for government employees.

* Government education spending in 2017 was comprised of:

  • $660 billion on elementary and secondary education.
  • $197 billion on higher education.
  • $95 billion on libraries and other education.

* Relative to other types of government spending in 2017, education spending was:

  • 38% lower than spending for healthcare.
  • 23% higher than spending for national defense and veterans’ benefits.
  • 2.5 times higher than spending for public order and safety, including law enforcement, courts, prisons, fire protection, and immigration enforcement.

* During 2017, private consumers and nonprofit organizations in the U.S. spent about $352 billion on formal education. This amounts to 1.8% of the U.S. gross domestic product and $2,787 for every household in the U.S.

* Relative to other spending by private consumers and nonprofit organizations in 2017, education spending was:

  • 44% lower than spending on motor vehicles and parts.
  • 26% lower than spending on clothing and footwear.
  • 15% higher than spending on alcoholic beverages.

Collective Outcomes

Earnings

* In 2017, U.S. residents aged 25 to 64 had average cash earnings of $46,015.Cash earnings do not include non-cash compensation, such as employee fringe benefits.

* In 2017, 79% of U.S. residents aged 25 to 64 had at least some cash earnings, and 21% did not have any cash earnings.

* Among U.S. residents aged 25 to 64 who had cash earnings in 2017, average cash earnings were $58,565. Among these same people, median cash earnings were $42,346.

* Click here for more data on education and earnings.

Practical Literacy

* Per the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES):

As a part of their everyday lives, adults in the United States interact with a variety of printed and other written materials to perform a multitude of tasks. A comprehensive list of such tasks would be virtually endless. It would include such activities as balancing a checkbook, following directions on a prescription medicine bottle, filling out a job application, consulting a bus schedule, correctly interpreting a chart in the newspaper, and using written instructions to operate a voting machine.

A common thread across all literacy tasks is that each has a purpose—whether that purpose is to pay the telephone bill or to understand a piece of poetry. All U.S. adults must successfully perform literacy tasks in order to adequately function—that is, to meet personal and employment goals as well as contribute to the community.

* In 2003, NCES assessed the English literacy skills of U.S. residents aged 16 and older. The full assessment was nationally representative except for 5% of the population who were completely illiterate in English and Spanish or unable to answer very simple questions.


For more information, visit https://www.justfacts.com/education.asp.

Sick of D. C. on Facebook

Sick of D.C.

What is sick of DC? Great question…let’s look at what it is not. We are not republican group that fights democrats. Nor are we conservative fighting liberals. The only reason I’m starting by focusing taking on liberals and democrats rather than vice versa is because most will assume that because I’m from Alabama that I am reflexively conservative. In my life I’ve been as far left as you can go and probably as far right conservative. Through the evolution on my political thoughts and life experience I have come to understand that most of the labels and the conflicts we have been started for artificial reasons and put out there to maintain the status quo. Sick of DC is a progressive conservative or conservative progressive site. It’s about challenging the status quo by any means possible and doing things that work. This is the same result I hope to achieve in DC. DC is a broken down old model that continues to get terrible results. DC continues to grow and prosper and the true board of directors (We The People), the ones that should occupy the large corner office have abdicated their power and relegated themselves to the dingy office in the basement. Sick of DC is an experiment that may use cartoons, blogs, a podcast, videos, etc. to create dialogue and get the board of directors (We The People) engaged again. Once engaged we hope to make systematic changes to the People’s House, aka the US House of Representatives. By changing the structure and mindset of the House over time there will be different results. Achievable goals that over time can have big impact, i.e., changing from whole milk to skim milk to start losing weight. Change won’t happen overnight but over time there could be results.