All over the internet I find people up in arms over the $100 million dollars that has been pledged by our government to help Haiti. To put this amount in perspective, consider this:

I live in a small town in the rust belt about 20 miles south of Pittsburgh. My town has been in decline for much of the last half century, we have seen a population decrease of about 40% since 1970. Our local school board has decided that the current middle schools need to be replaced and combined into one new building which will cost about $30 million dollars. This building will house about 800 students. It will not be a Taj Mahal like kind you will find in wealthier school districts closer to Pittsburgh. I’m sure though that it will be typical of any new middle school building you will find in Pennsylvania.

Do some simple math and discover that the $100 million dollars pledged by the United States government is equivalent in cost to 3.3 new Ringgold School District middle schools.