Is the U.S. an Education Superpower?

I once heard the United States Federal budget described as an insurance company with an army. A minimalist view of the U.S. national budget helps us see why.

In FY 2022 the top five spending categories of the $9 trillion U.S. federal budget accounted for 70% of all spending. Within that 70% the "insurance bucket" includes the Medicare, Medicaid, other DHS programs, and of course Social Security. The "army bucket" is U.S. Defense Department spending.

While there a scores of ways to represent and cross reference these kinds of figures, if you can indulge me, let's start with this simple view of gross investment by country. The U.S. spends more on defense than the combined defense investments of China, India, UK, Russia, France, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Japan, and South Korea.

I won't add additional commentary to this as it's not really my area of expertise. I'm more of an educational budget wonk and I am using defense spending merely as a point of reference.

Now let's add some perspective given our shared interest in education finance. The U.S. educational system does not share the same "superpower" reputation that precedes the U.S. military. But you may be surprised to learn that annually the U.S. spends more on Elementary and Secondary Education than on Defense.

This chart below compares the U.S.' 2019 Defense spending with the combined fifty states and U.S. territories' 2019 K-12 educational spend. (Note the chart above is 2022 data versus the below from 2019, accounting for the difference in Defense spend between the two.)

I offer this as a bit of a cornerstone piece as I get more granular on my analysis of Michigan's specific educational spending. I am merely making the point that by almost any measure most would agree given these amounts that the U.S. does indeed invest significantly in education. Meanwhile most observers would not categorize the U.S. as an education superpower in the K-12 space. (Higher education is a different discussion, which presents its own interesting analyses.)

Understandably a million questions follow relating to outcomes and quality measures in American K-12 education, many of which we will pursue here. But if at the outset we don't recognize the immense size of the investment the ensuing analysis may sit in a shadow of doubt. In other words, I think it far too simple to dash off American K-12 educational outcomes as attributable to lack of investment.

My beginning premise is simply that there is substantial investment being made in the American education system, even accounting for GDP and per pupil distinctions. Logical questions await us as we examine the types of investments made and how we can best leverage our considerable resources for the greater good of American society.