Statistics That Speak Volumes

Yes Magazine has this really great feature called "The Page That Counts" and has interesting statistics like these:

Percentage of major media stories about the 2008 presidential elections that focused on political, financial, and tactical aspects of the campaign: 63 %

Percentage that focused on the personal backgrounds of candidates: 17 %

Percentage that focused on the ideas and policy proposals of candidates: 15 %

Percentage that focused on records and past public performance of candidates: 1 %

Source:“The Invisible Primary—Invisible No Longer,” Project for Excellence in Journalism, Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, October 29, 2007. http://journalism.org/node/8187

Number of jobs created by spending $1 billion on defense: 8,555

Number of jobs created by spending $1 billion on health care: 10,779

Number of jobs created by spending $1 billion on education: 17,687

Number of jobs created by spending $1 billion on mass transit: 19,795
Source:“The U.S. Employment Effects of Military and Domestic Spending Priorities,” Robert Pollin and Heidi Garrett-Peltier, Dept of Economics and Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, October 2007.http://www.ips-dc.org/reports/071001-jobcreation.pdf

Iowa Teachers - Half Way There

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- The Iowa House on Thursday overwhelmingly approved legislation that would lift Iowa's teacher pay to 25th in the country.

The legislation was a key goal of Statehouse Democrats, including Gov. Chet Culver, who campaigned on a promise to increase teacher salaries.

"This is a good bill, one that sends the message that ... we value the contributions of our educators in the classroom," said Rep. Cindy Winckler, D-Davenport, the bill's floor manager.

Lawmakers approved the increase on a 90-7 vote.

The House approved a few technical changes, which means the bill will return to the Senate, where it was approved by a wide margin earlier in the session.

Gark statistical questions: I know this makes teachers #25 in the nation in terms of dollars to dollars, but in terms of quality of life and cost of living, are teachers in Iowa actually lower or higher in national ranking? For instance, if a school teacher in New York City averages $5o,000 a year salary, but their cost of living is 2 times what the cost of living here, wouldn't teachers "real" rank here be higher?