roughly what proportion of the U.S. budget is spent on defence?

Percentage wise, it isn't as much as you would think, but it is still an amazing amount of money.

here are two piecharts, one from an anti-war website:

http://www.warresisters.org/images/pieFY04.jpg

and another from the feds:

http://www.warresisters.org/images/FY04_deception.jpg
(actually from same URL, but it's the government view)

Of course, the private health insurance system may have something to do with it.

The Fed govt. only kicks in 5 cents a dollar for local schools, which is why many state and local school systems are pissed at Bush wanting to put some nationwide univeral testing over all students.

It would hold poor school systems accountable for not being able to afford to give the same level of education that wealthier school districts. The kicker is that if the school isn't up to snuff, the feds pull their nickel back.

The key being that too many school systems (not just poor rural or inner city schools) aren't accountable to anyone anyway, but they all want more money and would like to frame the debate in terms of spending, as if $$$ = Good grades. This of course is total bullshit.

It's hard to attract good teachers if you can't pay them a competitive wage.

It's not bullshit, it's obvious

The United States drains brains from the rest of the world in the post-education scientific research market because it has the economy to pay for it - an economy that relies on results. There's no reason to give schools a free pass if they're only going to squander that money.

The worst forecast I've seen - 2% of jobs outsourced by 2015 over a 25 year period - is an astronomical increase? Assuming those jobs simply disappear and those employees can't find new work, our unemployment rate will still be below most of Europe - and lower than it was here 20 years ago. Either way, what's the better strategy for educating a young person: A) We can't guarantee you the job you want, so don't bother, or B) No one can guarantee you the job you want, but if you work hard you'll greatly expand your options in the future.

And the only social service provided by schools is an investment opportunity

but it's too expensive to buy insourced goods! </vicious circle>

If you're going to spend 60% more than the rest of the industrialized world for average results you might as well spend that $4,000/student difference on something like health care or FUBU jackets..

We champions, right?

http://www.aft.org/research/reports/interntl/sba.htm

"Indexed to national income, the U.S. commitment of public funding slips to below average. The ratio of per-pupil spending to per-capita GDP is .19. Only Australia, Japan and Germany have a noticeably lower ratio. When looking only at public funding for public schools, the overall conclusions about U.S. spending remain about the same.

IV. Conclusion

Considering all measures of education spending, the U.S. fails to spend lavishly on education in comparison to other countries. At best, U.S. spending is average. Both the share of national income approach and measures of per pupil spending are frequently misinterpreted and alone, neither provides a satisfying measure of education spending without such important contextual information on demographics, how education is structured, and personnel compensation costs.

What distinguishes U.S. education from other nations is not how much or how little it spends. Thousands of schools district make the U.S. unique. Education costs and personnel compensation vary tremendously. School districts operate free of national education standards and national salary schedules. The U.S. has forged a structure of long school days, busing, and school lunch programs to support a system of large schools. Consequently, noninstructional spending is a larger portion of school costs."

Amen, my brother.

And actually, it's a lot more revealing to compare school districts in metropolitan areas, say, where different county tax bases result in different per-pupil spending. Dumb kids is not a money or resource problem nearly as much as it is a cultural problem.