JOUR 61: Reporting with Numbers

1.· 67% of the college’s budget comes from the state, 5% comes from student tuition and the remaining 28% from fees, grants and gifts.

· Most of the funding for the local college comes from the state. The next highest source of funding was fees, grants and gifts, followed by student tuition.

· Two-thirds of the local college budget of $120 million comes from the state. Less than a third was supplied by fees, grants and gifts, with tuition fees only providing a small percentage of the budget.

2.

· The average prison term for people convicted of aggravated assault is 22 Months.

· The median prison term for people convicted of aggravated assault is 12 months.

• The median is the most accurate description of prison terms because it removes the possibility of one extreme figure distorting the average. In this case one of the figures, 7 years, is far higher than any of the other figures and so makes the average far higher. The median is more representative.

3.

• If the State legislature made restaurant food sales exempt from sales tax then fast-food patrons who pay $5 per meal would save $18.85 in a year if they eat out once a week.
• If the State legislature made restaurant food sales exempt from sales tax then people who spend $20 per meal once a week for a year would save $75.40.