1st book: The 2008 rankings showed that 20 U.S.

universities were listed among the top 50 in the world. In addition, the United States held the top two spots (Harvard University and Yale University, respectively), and had 11 of the top 15 universities.

Martin Ince, the editor of World University Rankings, notes While European Union countries spend on average about 1.1% of gross domestic product on high education, as does Japan, the US spends 2.6%, an annual total of about $250 billion. (Times Higher Education Supplement, October 9, 2008)

According to the U.S. Department of Education, expenditures for public and private education from preprimary to graduate school rose to an estimated high of $1 trillion for the 2007-08 school year.

Public schools obtain funds from three sources: local, state, and federal governments. Typically, local governments rely on property taxes to finance education, and state governments use revenues from state sales taxes and, in some instances, state income taxes, lotteries, motor vehicle fees, and excise taxes. Local and state government have been traditionally been the primary source of revenue for elementary and secondary schools, with the federal government contributing a relatively small percentage.

AN ECONOMIC CRISIS LEADS TO GOVERNMENT STIMULUS FUNDING. A financial crisis that began in 2007 in the United State was the beginning of what became a deep recession and economic crisis, not only in the United States but also around the world. As a direct result, school funding declined dramatically, forcing school consolidations, slashing educational programs, cutting back or eliminating sports programs, laying off teachers, and putting more children in fewer classrooms.

In 1975 Congress passed the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, which required schools to develop programs for disabled children.

Disadvantaged students include children from families with very low incomes; children who are linguistically isolated or have limited English proficiency, usually because they are members of immigrant families; and children who change schools frequently-for example, children of seasonal farm workers or homeless parents.

The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act of 1986, which was reauthorized under the NCLB act of 2001, provides funding to facilitate the enrollment, attendance, and success in school of homeless children and youth.

A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform (April 1983, http://www.ed.gov/pubs/NatAtRisk/index.html)

George W. Bush, Jan 2002, No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), major reform of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965.

Americas Children at Risk (Sept 1997, http://www.census.gov/prod/3/97/pubs/cb-9702.pdf)

A great number of factors affect teacher supply and demand, including student enrollments, particular subject area needs, the reserve pool of trained teachers, the pool of new teachers entering the profession, teacher retirement, and other reasons for teachers leaving the profession.

Trends in College Pricing, 2008 (Nov 2008) http://professionals.collegeboard.com/profdownload/trendsin-college-pricing-2008.pdf

Trends in Student Aid 2008 (Aug 2009) http://professionals.collegeboard.com/profdownload/trends-instudent-aid-2008.pdf

Book 2:

To date, the government has spent more than $522 billion on the war, with another $70 billion already allocated for 2008. Whats more, we could have added 30,000 elementary and secondary schoolteachers and built 400 schools in which they could teach.

Democrats and Republicans alike believe that the more budget money is spent on education, the more schools will improve. This has not been demonstrated to be true, Bethell says, citing numerous cases of

school districts that saw little to no improvement in the quality of their schools after receiving vastly more funding. (Tom Bethell, American Spectator)