Swordfish:
Mrs. Questor is a teacher in public schools too. Most of the money is state money. The federal department of education has something like 40,000 employees and they really don't do anything of value.
There are a few jobs where the government can do it better than the private sector because it is inherently unprofitable work: education, defense, and police are the major ones. So my original point on productivity is flawed.
The kinds of jobs that might be created by the federal government today are just make work jobs. Even some of the teacher and police hirings of recent years were followed by teacher and police firings when the political winds changed.
Sorry. I obviously offended you.
I disagree with the scale of Federal meddling in the education process. It's basically a decent system, with most of the control being local. Things get messed up as control leaves the locality.
Here in sunny Minnesota schools are the biggest single tax burden, and the taxes to support them keep going up while the teacher salaries are alarmingly flat. Considering the level of dedication I see in some of the teachers it's a wonder that they stay with the job, except for the great benefit of a fabulous retirement package.