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the arctic thaws every year,

What, all of it?
[...] the "climatologists" (not a field of science for which any educational institution grants a degree)

http://education-portal.com/articles/Schools_that_Offer_Climatology_Programs_How_to_Choose.html
http://www.hotcoursesusa.com/us/3-all/climatology-in-usa.html

Side note, check to see if the UNIV you are attending offers discounts for such things. You can check the listings of schools that do such here: http://education-portal.com/linux_certificate.html

She could deal with having a group of disrespectful criminals as students if...

leads me to believe (though I may be wrong) that she is teaching at a high school level. According to education-portal.com

Public school math teachers must have completed a bachelor's degree program and be licensed by their respective state. Private school math teachers generally need a bachelor's degree, but do not need to be licensed.

Actually, it would have helped if the poster realized that this is by GDP and not really the dollar amount. So much for how smart the Slashdot crowd is. Most can't even read from what I've just seen. Also note that I used the same site. So much for your assumed bias.
 
  More information that is slightly dated but we can see the trend.
 
  And yet more
 
  And even more. You'll note that even with the budget cuts we're still spending more than we did in 2008. Certainly not stone age figures.
 
So there you have it. Point proven. The education problems in the United States are not a funding problem. We have a social problem that people simply refuse to address. I can't imagine why, with all the data out there, we continue to bang our heads against a wall that simply doesn't exist. I suspect laziness to be totally honest. As Americans we have this idea that the solution to problems is to throw money or bullets at it. We see this with The War on Poverty, The War on Drugs, The War on Terrorism and The War on Ignorance. All of these things have brought us down a notch and none of them have made any progress in their stated goals. Instead of knee-jerk reactions please join me in wanting a solid solution with long term benefits for all involved. These problems are being "solved" by misrepresentation of the true underlying issues. It's costing all of us in time, money and quality of life. The approaches taken by our collective "leadership" have done nothing but throw up more schism to people who are wanting the same end results. We can take the time and come to a common ground, common sense solution. We can be better than we were. Why don't we do it?
 
Thank you for your time.

they can't learn unless it's fed to them in dribs and drabs, so they aren't really "learning" anything.

It's called "grade inflation" for a reason. Time to put some rules into place, such as "if you don't have basic reading, writing, and math skills, you don't get in."

http://education-portal.com/articles/Grim_Illiteracy_Statistics_Indicate_Americans_Have_a_Reading_Problem.html

* 42 million American adults can't read at all; 50 million are unable to read at a higher level that is expected of a fourth or fifth grader.
* The number of adults that are classified as functionally illiterate increases by about 2.25 million each year.
* 20 percent of high school seniors can be classified as being functionally illiterate at the time they graduate.

None of these qualify for admission, and yet they get in, because of the almighty buck.

And from the looks of the postings here on slashdot, many stay functionally illiterate throughout their lives. These are not people who should be learning about computers - they should be learning how to read and write.

Mod parent confused!
While the Boston College PD likely consists of real police officers, the link you have given refers to the police at Boston University, which is a totally different institution.

It is very easy to confuse colleges in Boston considering that there are about 25 of them ( http://education-portal.com/number_of_colleges_in_boston.html )

Interesting research, could I point out that it can be interesting to compare with other countries, for example:
http://www.kff.org/insurance/snapshot/chcm010307oth.cfm
http://education-portal.com/articles/Public_Education_Spending_Has_Doubled_in_the_Last_15_Years.html

And what I already said in another post, averages are tricky. ten people spending 11 vs nine spending 1 and one spending 101 gives the same average of spending 11, but the statistics are very different.

I think one of the problems facing the US is it's high and increasing differences in incomes and spending. How can you pay the most in the world for healthcare per capita, and still have a large part of the population unprovided for? Same thing for education.

"but he is also making a very loud statement to the government to pull its head out of its ass and appropriate more education funding."

His statement is as ridiculous as it is loud. America spends more money on public education than any other country on earth, and has some of the worst scores. In the last 15 years, education spending has doubled, and test scores have steadily declined.

Our schools don't need more money. They need to start teaching hard core reading, writing, math, science, and critical thinking and stop appropriating gigantic school bonds to build football stadiums and soccer fields. They need to spend 0 hours per day talking about cultural diversity and 100% of their time learning hard facts and skills that will improve their minds and equip them to be successful.

Computing, post-graduate science, and engineering just don't compensate people well for the lifestyle sacrifices (long working hours, little exercise) required.

Are you kidding me!? In terms of starting salary, Computer Science and engineering are still some of the best majors to get in to. Not only that, compared to the medical fields and law fields, getting a degree in CS or engineering requires much less time and effort. And long working hours? That has nothing to do with your field of study. As a staff computer scientist at my company, I can work anywhere between 30-40 hours per week. My company is an engineering company that does contracts with various government agencies and while some people end up doing overtime once in a while, it's a rare thing. It would be naive of someone to choose a different field if they think engineering fields require long hours. If you get good grades and connections you can choose a job with the hours you are looking for.

Lastly, what century have you been living in? Almost all good paying jobs these days require very little exercise, and it's not like people can't just join a sports team or go the gym during their free time because they are an engineering major. Furthermore, most jobs that require exercise also involve more risk. I'm sorry, but I have to say that your theory why women aren't getting into engineering fields is a very weak theory.
 

Sometimes it isn't just the pay. Many scholarships/honors programs require you to keep a certain GPA (fixed , no variation on major), or you lose your scholarship/honors status.

Last I checked, there was *one* BS Presidential Scholar in our class. And he worked his *ass* off.

Also, some of those soft majors pay pretty well. Marketing can get you a lot of money. So can fashion design.

However, this article (and your argument) still hold weight.
http://education-portal.com/articles/Top_10_Paying_College_Majors.html

...but it doesn't mean that kids without rich parents won't have a harder time becoming a science major, or won't have a harder time leaving college with a lighter load on their back. Granted, a science job will help you pay off that 40-200k you owe in student loans, but it's much more liberating to walk out of college debt free- you aren't pressured into a job as quickly and have more time to decide what you want to do with your live. Usually a good mix for innovation.

To throw more fuel onto the fire, the system punishes kids who decide to take more science course electives than "fluffy electives". You can't tell me you didn't know kids in college that took a class just because it was an "Easy A". When the kid who took more electives in his discipline applies to grad school, his GPA is probably going to be lower, and most highly competitive schools look at the GPA first as a quick-screen- they won't notice his transcript. The kid who took fluffy courses will probably get into more schools than the student that actually knows more about science. I'm not saying that kids shouldn't take English courses, but this is what happens.