Hi guys,

I checked for a couple of hours online, but I was unable to find a correct figure. One website suggested that the federal govt. had a budget of nearly $60 billion dollars in 2003. However, another website showed that education expenditures were around 480 billion. Yes, you read that correct: nearly half a trillion. Both these websites were reputable, and I believe both branched out of the dept. of education's site. I am having trouble interpreting these figures. One of my friends suggested that 90% of education funds comes from the "local level" (ie, city & state), but where does this come from? Surely, a figure that large wouldn't be biting into the deficit, so there has to be some other explanation for it. Unforunately, I no longer have the links, but a little googling should bring them up. I am a little confused by the 480 billion figure and believe that I'm missing something important in understanding it.

I hope one of you can help me figure this out.

Thanks in advance!

200-2001 school year:
Nearly $401 billion collected.
$372 billion from nonfederal sources (state, intermediate, and local governments) (50% state, 43% local and intermediate, 93% total non-federal)
$29 billion from federal sources.
The percentage split between federal and other sources has remained pretty constant for the past several years at least, though overall speanding is increasing as the population increases.

School funds come mostly from state and local taxes... income tax, sales tax, property tax... and, in some cases, sources such as lotteries.

Source for numbers:Department of Education

Thanks, Methos. So the number is indeed nearly half a trillion. Can anyone else add to what Methos said? Any additional, interesting tidbits?