Saturday, April 30, 2011

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.  

Thursday, April 28, 2011

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).