(FORTUNE Magazine) – We have recently been hovering over some arresting figures about America's investment in education -- an investment widely viewed as inadequate. Asked in a recent Harris poll to name their top priority for new government spending, a solid plurality picked education. The need for more such spending was affirmed at several points in the first issue of the liberal journal American Prospect, memorialized in this space a fortnight ago. In his introductory article, co- editor Paul Starr, professor of sociology at Princeton, dwelt sorrowfully on conservative folly during the Eighties, when the country had failed to invest in certain ''sources of growth that require productive public spending, particularly . . . education . . .'' Starr hopes to get his education funds from defense cutbacks -- the famous ''peace dividend.'' Liberals have been salivating in all directions over the education money they could latch onto if only we canceled the Stealth bomber. This brings us to our arresting figures. Recently published by the U.S. Department of Education, they pertain to total U.S. spending (both public and private) on elementary- and secondary-school education. It seems that aggregate spending is now $212 billion a year. In constant dollars, we are spending 29% more than at the beginning of the Eighties. We now spend $5,246 per pupil. Again in constant dollars, spending per pupil is twice as high as it was in the late Sixties -- when student achievement was appreciably better. Scholastic Aptitude Test scores were 6% higher then. We have earlier argued the case for the Stealth in these columns, and now add only one other claim: At least we know what we are getting for our money. This seems to be more than education spenders know. If they don't find out soon, people may start talking about an ''education dividend.''