so we often hear a lot about the schools in south korea japan finland. we actually send -- spend a little more than they do and our outcomes are mediocre. our kids are average in reading they're below average in math. so i often get the question where does the money go to in our system? you know, we have quite generous pensions and health plans. one of the reasons why is we don't have a big social safety net that provides for health care provided by government in this country so teachers have fought for that to offset the relatively low pay that we were talking about. and the history of how teachers' unions have achieved some of that is a story i tell in the book. extracurricular activities, sports, transportation and international schools do so while we're spending more it might not necessarily be focused toward achievement or students' academics. >> host: so how much of it dose toward the teachers' pensions? and is there an average of what we spend per-pupil in the public schools nationwide? about 12,000 10,000? >> guest: yeah, i was going to say betwe