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Got Vouchers?

If I were a contestant on Jeff Foxworthy's Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?, then I would give the incorrect answer to the following 1st Grade level social studies question:

What is the largest expenditure of the U.S. Federal Government?

Remembering back from my earliest grade school days of civics and government, I clearly recall seeing a pie chart that roughly resembled a Pac-Man where the defense budget was swallowing every other sliver of government spending. And until I had read McQ's Entitlements and Political Will over at QandO, I would have confidently answered that our country's defense was still its primary expense. And I would have subsequently had to admit that I was definitely not smarter than a 5th grader as I walked off the show in shame.

This article of McQ's, and the original Robert Samuelson article to which it refers, has haunted me since I first read it. How have we gotten to this point? If there is one topic on which the Republicans, Libertarians, and at least some of the Democrats can agree upon, it's that, if the federal government should be spending money on anything, then defense of its people should be the primary concern. And yet, the defense budget was down to 20% of federal spending in 2006.

In roughly that same period, what other spending trends can be analyzed? In Mona Charen's Do-Gooders, she points out:

In 1965, the average per-pupil expenditure for primary and secondary schools students was $3,000 per year. By 1995, it had more than doubled to $6,500 (in constant dollars). Performance (i.e., test scores) did not improve. Indeed, in many areas, performance has declined. Spending rose in every category—salaries, equipment, special programs, transportation, and administration. Spending also rose at every government level—local, state, and federal. By 2003-2004, local, state, and federal governments spent half a trillion dollars on elementary and secondary education.

It should be noted here, as well, that the 2001 national average per-pupil expenditure was $8,745, while, at the upper end of the scale, Washington DC topped out at $15,122 in the same year.

So what's this got to do with our Defense budget? Well, if you'll forgive the apples-to-oranges comparison (federal vs. federal/state/city), Charen goes on to say:

It tends to put into perspective that 1980s slogan, emblazoned on thousands of hippies T-shirts, that read: "Wouldn't it be great if the schools had all the money they needed and the Pentagon had to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber?" In 2003-2004, the United States spent $375 billion on defense, so education spending far outstrips defense spending.

Well, at the very least, the kids nowadays can be spared the propagandized and evil Pac-Man pie chart gobbling up the rest of the federal budget. School vouchers, anyone?