Lawrence’s tab for the Iraq war: $93.7 million. Kansas’s share: $3.6 billion.

The city of Lawrence won’t be getting a bill in the mail anytime soon. The numbers are estimates from the National Priorities Project, a nonpartisan organization that looks at congressional and Department of Defense records to determine how much the country is spending on the war.

So far, it has been more than $460 billion.

Just with Kansas’s share, 424 new elementary schools could be built, 43,239 affordable houses could go up, and 79,731 music and arts teachers could be hired.

Of course, the pot of money paying for the war isn’t the same as the one covering education and affordable housing. National Priorities Project Research Director Anita Dancs acknowledges that much of the cost of the war will get tacked onto the nation’s deficit.

“What we are doing is showing the magnitude of how much money this is,” Dancs said.

Joe Aistrup, head of the political science department at Kansas State University, doesn’t think the cost of the war is going to take away from governments building future bridges or roads. But, he does believe it will affect long-term national issues such as Medicare and Social Security.

“With so much money going to the Iraq war, the resolution of these issues is being pushed off into the future, more so than it would be,” Aistrup said.

U.S. Rep. Nancy Boyda, D-Kan., said the country needs to spend money on national security, but spending on the war hasn’t made the country safer.

“We know that terrorists are getting a foothold in over 60 countries worldwide,” Boyda said. “All of our resources and present military strength are in Iraq. We are not ready to respond in a timely manner if and when something happens in the rest of the world.”