How come we never see stories about ridiculous spending by the Dept of Education?
For the same reason you don't see the wallpaper: when you're surrounded by ridiculous spending you don't see it. In the DoD budget, the ridiculous items stick out like a proverbial sore thumb.
Or maybe you do: the stories about ridiculous Dept. of Ed spending are disguised as stories about the U.S. spending more per pupil on education than any other country and ending up 9th, 10th, 43rd. . . on some measure of educational quality.