Posted on: Tuesday, April 30, 2002

ISLAND VOICES
Schools: We get what we pay for

By Renee Ing
Hawai'i resident

At work I've often met elementary school children from Japan, and it was interesting to me that they seemed one to two years ahead of our children educationally.

It was also interesting to hear a European high school boy say his school work in the U.S. was what he had covered in a school a year before at home. Therefore, when I met a recent UH graduate whose Ph.D. thesis compared the social programs (i.e., healthcare, education, etc.) of the U.S. and other industrialized countries, I asked about this. I learned those children come from predominantly public school systems that are often very centralized. We've known for years the U.S. ranks a lowly 14th out of the 16 most industrialized nations in level of education funding — behind Japan (7th), Canada (8th) and European countries.

It seems the only U.S. students who do as well educationally as those international students are American kids from affluent public school districts (e.g., Beverly Hills and Santa Barbara spend $18,000 to $20,000 per student in contrast to the $8,500 average in California).

Europe funds public education up through the Ph.D. level. Education funding is equitably allotted — so family income, ethnicity, gender and region do not give some youngsters more advantage in opportunity over others. They have a "meritocracy" — how well you do in school is what counts. Students must study, and good-performing students get into good public schools.

The high level of funding for public education and equity of funding per student create overall excellent public education, as we see in Europe. Since only the most affluent U.S. students perform as well as students from other modern, industrialized countries, this shows that U.S. schools in general are woefully underfunded.

In Hawai'i, we're lucky farsighted people set up our centralized school system so equity could be possible throughout the state. However, compared to the approximately $18,000 spent per student in Beverly Hills, the $6,771 Hawai'i spends per student (and the $8,500 California spends) shows the extent of our underfunding — eroding Hawai'i's public educational quality.

Good public education in affluent U.S. public school districts and in other countries is created by their higher level of funding. We, on the other hand, are getting what we pay for.