Education is a field you tend to think is hurting for money. A recent report on government pork in education tends to suggest there is a lot of money being wasted. 

As we come up on midterm elections, we get to see how our beloved elected representatives try to nail down another cushy term – by bringing home the bacon. They do this through what are known as earmarks. These are essentially federal funds used to build jobs or the like. Oklahoma Senator Tom Colburn has release a report on government pork found in the funding of education throughout the country. It is a small sampling of the waste we find in our government, but one that depicts the problem that exists across all fields of government funding. Let’s look at some examples. 

When you think of a Las Vegas school district, what do you think it would need funds for? More teachers? Supplies? Books? How about a $25,000 earmark for Mariachi music lessons? Yep, it happened in 2005. 

Jackson State University received over $470,000 to study whether opening a Osteopathic medical school made sense. That seems noble and worth. Well, it did. Then we find out the dean of the school openly states he has no intention of pursuing such a school. 

Don’t care for Goth music and culture? You know, the sad kids who listen to The Cure and other bands of that sort? Well, do you dislike it enough to be happy that $273,000 was spent on a program in Arkansas to combat it?! Gee, couldn’t we just let the kids outgrow it? 

I’ll admit that I am not a big tennis fan. When I did watch in the past, Andrei Agassi was just about the only player that interested me. Well, no more. Why? The Andrei Agassi College Prep Academy received over $5 million in funding through seven different earmarks. $5 million!

The list goes on and on. This is not to pick on funding done under the name of education. No, this is a pervasive practice throughout the federal government and state government as well. It is simply absurd and the accumulated amounts constitute a huge amount of waste. Many people react to these reports by saying we should vote the bums out. I am all for that, but the problem is the next people elected do the same thing. Welcome to the catch-22.