By the numbers on the G8 countries: a data bank on education trends for district leaders.

Expenditures
Total expenditures per student in primary and
secondary education (converted to U.S. dollars)

Canada                         $5,947
France                         $6,380
Germany                        $6,034
Japan                          $5,913
United Kingdom                 $5,135
United States                  $7,877

Local, Regional, Central

Percentage distribution of public funds for primary and
secondary education, by level of government

                              Local       Regional      Central
                           governments   governments   government

Canada                         26            70             4
France                         14            12            74
Germany                        18            75             8
Italy                          14             5            81
Japan                          18            57            25
Russian Federation             84            17             1
United Kingdom                 74                          26
United States                  41            51             8

Note: Table made from bar graph.

CITIZENSHIP

Percentage of 14-year-olds who report trust in the national
government and percent who report interest in politics.

Percent who "always" or
"most of the time" trust
the national government

England                  44%

Germany                  44%

Italy                    50%

Russian
Federation               29%

United States            65%

Percent who "agree" or
"strongly agree" with the
statement "I am interested
in politics"

England                  25%

Germany                  42%

Italy                    44%

Russian
Federation               54%

United States            39%

READING

Fourth-grader's average scores for the combined
reading literacy scale

ENGLAND                  553
CANADA                   544
UNITED STATES            542
ITALY                    541
GERMANY                  539
SCOTLAND                 528
RUSSIAN
FEDERATION               528
FRANCE                   525

TEACHERS' SALARIES

Average public primary teachers' annual salaries
with minimum qualifications and 15 years
of experience (converted to U.S. dollars)

England                       $36,864
France                        $29,193
Germany                       $46,459
Italy                         $28,483
Japan                         $43,043
Scotland                      $35,872
United States                 $41,595

Teachers' Hours

Average number of net teaching hours over the school year

                                          Middle       High
                          Elementary      School      School

France                        905           637          609
Germany                       784           735          684
Italy                         748           612          612
Japan                         635           557          478
Russian Federation            860           774          774
Scotland                      950           893          893
United States                1139          1127         1139

Note: Table made from bar graph.

Source: National Center for Education Statistics,
Comparative Indicators of Education in the United States
and Other G8 Countries: 2004.