There is a terrible amount of waste in public school education. I can't find the article I read before about how the vast majority of funds in public schools are spent on special education students. It was something like the average cost per pupil was $12,000, but the average cost per pupil NON-special-ed was like $3500. I can't remember the exact numbers, and it's been a while since I read it, but it was something close to that. Maybe someone else remembers better than I do.
I was also getting a cheeseburger for lunch today when the cashier rang up my bill and somehow the computer didn't tell her how much change to give me. She cursed, said they didn't give her "no calculator", then looked at me and asked, "OK, so your bill was $4.74 and you gave me $5...?" I sighed and told her 26 cents. She's probably got a high school diploma, sad to say. Now HER education was tax-payer money well spent. /sarc
12k is a long way from 26k, don't you think?