16 July 2004

To the Editor
Indianapolis Star Newspaper
307 N. Pennsylvania St.
Indianapolis, In. 46204

Dear Sir: In his recent article published 9 July 04, Cal Thomas wrote about “Wasted money on education”.

Unfortunately, his figures were entirely wrong. He wrote in millions when the true figures spent by the top six federal government agencies is in the Billions. They are, as compared between 1965 and 2002:

Health and Human Services: $1 Billion vs $22.9 Billion

Education: $1 Billion vs $46.32 Billion

Agriculture: $769 Million vs $11.9 Billion

Defense: $587 Million vs $4.7 Billion

Energy: $442 Million vs $3.6 Billion

Labor: $230 Million vs $6.4 Billion.

These figures are from the Cato Institute in a study released by Neal McCluskey and are available at www.cato.org or can be linked directly on my Internet site www.edalert.com.

Sincerely

Ed Sparks