Pax Americana started in WWII (which killed over 55 million people) and since then, there has been no global conflict of a similar scale. Cf <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.scaruffi.com&#x2F;politics&#x2F;massacre.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.scaruffi.com&#x2F;politics&#x2F;massacre.html</a> (top result in DDG).<p>Whether you consider that global relatively free trade is not beneficial to the rest of the world is up to you, but as a citizen of the rest of the world who did benefit I&#x27;m quite glad the US did not go isolationist after WWII.<p>Regarding schools, whether the taxpayer&#x27;s money is used appropriately is another discussion, irrelevant here since Americans, through their elected representatives, chose to spent the money in this way.<p>Funding-wise, last year&#x27;s budget spent $100bn and this year wants $117bn on the Federal end for &quot;Education, Training, Employment and Social Services&quot; (see link above) of which $69bn in 2015 is for Education (see: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ed.gov&#x2F;news&#x2F;press-releases&#x2F;obama-administration-2015-budget-prioritizes-key-education-investments-provide-opportunities-all-americans" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ed.gov&#x2F;news&#x2F;press-releases&#x2F;obama-administration-2...</a>).