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How state budgets are breaking US schools - Bill Gates

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TED Talk

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America's school systems are funded by the 50 states. In this fiery talk, Bill Gates says that state budgets are riddled with accounting tricks that disguise the true cost of health care and pensions and are weighted with worsening deficits -- with the financing of education at the losing end.

Additional Resources for you to Explore

Bill Gates is an American programmer, inventor, business magnate, and philanthropist. Gates is the chairman of Microsoft, the world’s largest personal-computer software company.
Education economics is the study of economic issues relating to education, including the demand for education and the financing and provision of education.
In his Talk, Bill Gates recommends reading the book "Educational Economics: Where Do School Funds go?" by Marguerite Roza to help educate us on the current budget deficit.
Government spending includes all government consumption and investment but excludes transfer payments made by a state.
Generally Accepted Accounting Principles are used to prepare, present and report financial statements for a wide variety of entities, including publicly traded and privately held companies, non-profit organizations, and government authorities.
In this article in the Washington Post, Erskine Bowles, co-chairman of the Simpson-Bowles commission and author, with Alan Simpson, of a series of deficit-reduction plans, presents his most recent proposal to reduce the deficit.
The main points of the Simpson-Bowles plan to reduce the deficit are summarized in a post by Ezra Klein of The Washington Post.

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