Defense Spending

   As the money spent for education barely rises, Congress wants to boost defense spending to $604.6 billion for the coming fiscal year. That's an increase of 5 percent from the current year, according to an estimate by the Congressional Budget Office, or $26.2 billion.
   All that as spending for education stalls, rising by less than 1 percent. The Census Bureau, in a report noted here several days ago, said the nation's school districts spent an average of $10,700 yearly to educate one pupil.
   Total expenditure by public school systems totaled $596.3 billion in fiscal year 2013, up 0.5 percent from the prior year, the Census report said. This breaks a three-year trend of decreasing total expenditures for elementary and secondary education.
   In short, more money is being spent for military purposes than is spent on educating young people in the nation's public schools.
   Priorities.