Student Instructional Hours

The Chicago school year is 174 days with 5.75 hours per day, for a (rounded) total of 1001 instructional hours per year.  The New York City school year is 186 days with 6.83 hours per day, for a (rounded) total of 1271 instructional hours per year.

The cumulative difference is striking, and is graphically depicted below (click to enlarge).  By the time a New York City student has graduated, while being in school for 12 years, they have effectively been educated for 16.51 Chicago school-years.  Prima facie, a remarkable disparity.  

Debt, Primary Surplus, and Inflation

Four graphs relevant to understanding the current budget situation and inflation.

Historical, real U.S. Debt (click to enlarge).

Historical real U.S. Debt as a Fraction of GDP (click to enlarge).

Historical U.S. primary surplus as a fraction of GDP (click to enlarge).

Historical U.S. inflation rate between quarters, by percent change in CPI (click to enlarge).