Reporting with Numbers

1) A local college releases figures showing that its total budget is $120 million. Of that total, $80 million comes from the state, $6 million from student tuition, and the remaining $34 million from fees, grants and gifts.

* 67% of the budget comes from the state, 5% come from the student tuition, and 28% comes from the fees, grants and gifts

* The most significant source of funding is coming from the state, second to that is the fees, grants, and gifts, and the least coming from the students.


*Two-thirds of the college budget is coming from the state, more than a quarter of the fees, grants and gifts, and the five percent coming from student tuition.

2) Your editor assigns you to do a story about prison sentences handed down in cases of aggravated assault. He gives you the following figures from an anti-crime group that is lobbying for tougher sentencing guidelines. The cases represent the people convicted for aggravated assault in San Jose in one month in 2006.

* The average prison term for people convicted of aggravated assault is about 2 years.

*The median prison term for people convicted of aggravated assault is 1 year

*The median figure is a more accurate description of prison terms because the list of sentencing shows that most inmates were in for 1 year.

3) Currently the California state tax is 8.25%. If the sales tax were exempted from restaurant food sales a person who pays $5 per meal would save about $21.45 on tax. For the people who spend $20 per meal once a week for a year they would save $85.80.