Today's EduGaggle

As of 2005, the United States is now spending an average of $8,701 per pupil to educate its children. (New York was the biggest spender on education, at $14,119.) Where is all that money going? (Since the teachers of our California school district now earn less in take home pay than we did in 2002, we know that cash isn't going into our pockets...) And, more importantly, why aren't the taxpayers getting a better-grade of education for their money?

We were somewhat surprised to learn that deadly gun violence has come to Canada's schools. (Update here.)

Now that Queen of All Testing U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings has sufficient spare time on her hands to appear on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, maybe she'll find some time to visit a few classrooms that haven't been hand-picked for their propaganda value simply to showcase some perceived triumph of the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

The chief of Chicago's teachers union is beginning to make some noises about a possible strike at the start of next year if the district doesn't offer a high enough pay raise. (Too bad he can't "make some noise" about Chicago's kids getting high enough test scores...)

Fun With EduStatistics: Of the 1,400,000 bachelor’s degrees conferred in 2003–04, the largest numbers of degrees were conferred in the fields of business (307,000), social sciences and history (150,000), and education (106,000). At the master’s degree level, the largest fields were education (162,000) and business (139,000). The largest fields at the doctor’s degree level were education (7,100), engineering (5,900), biological and biomedical sciences (5,200), psychology (4,800), and health professions and related clinical sciences (4,400).

Today's non sequitur: We have to agree with those that thought the latest incarnation of American Idol was more than a little flat. ----------------------------------------See our latest entries.