Alaska and New York both spend around $19000 per pupil on education. Washington spends a bit more than $9000. Utah? Just over $6000.

So, Alaska and New York both get the same results from their schools- and twice those of Washington. And poor Utah, the kids there can barely read or do sums!

Not so much. As it happens funding is one of many factors in provuding quality education. The rankings of Washington, Utah, Alaska and New York nationally and their per pupil apending don't appear strongly linked.

And even within funding there's room for adjustment. For instance, accross the board cuts to administrative services at the state level of 25% (to start) and 10% at the local levels would free up quite a lot of money. And it would, as a bonus, force a lot of professional goldbrickers to find honest work.