Description of Methodology

During September 2007, 98 Stanford students (mixture of undergraduate and graduate students) filled out a worksheet showing the current distribution of the discretionary US Federal budget. Students were invited to reallocate the money to reflect their values and priorities for our country. The results of all of the students were averaged together, and shown here. Does the US Federal Budget shown in blue reflect your priorities and values? Is that the kind of world you want to create? What does your faith or secular values say about where our tax dollars should be spent? Do you believe the federal budget is a moral document that should reflect our values as a society and country?

In this first graph, we have combined Education, Human Services, Health, & Housing into Human Services; Transportation, Community Economic Development, Science & Technology into Infrastructure; and Humanitarian International Aid and International Relations (State Dept.) into International. We think it makes a very compelling story that Stanford students care about such arcane subjects as the federal budget and how our tax dollars are used. What do you think?

The other graphs below provide more information about the details of the data that students provided. If you have questions, please feel free to contact us; we would love to receive feedback.

Geoff Browning
Campus Minister for UCCM

Thank you to TrueMajority.Org for the Oreo Cookie budget

Detailed Data