Per-student spending data clarified

By Derrick DePledge
Advertiser Education Writer

An education consultant to Gov. Linda Lingle has corrected information in his financial report on the state Department of Education and sought to explain why a student-spending figure in the report differs so substantially from a figure published in Education Week.

William Ouchi, a professor at the University of California at Los Angeles who has been advising Lingle, said his report released in November erroneously claimed that Hawai'i spent $8,361 per student in the 2001-02 school year when the figure was actually for the 2000-01 school year.

The report claimed that figure put Hawai'i 15th among states and the District of Columbia in student spending. Education Week, a national publication, recently reported that Hawai'i spent $6,614 per student in the 2000-01 school year, which ranked the state 40th.

Ouchi, in a letter to the Honolulu Star-Bulletin published Sunday, said both numbers are correct but are based on different calculations. For example, the Education Week figure looked at day-to-day school-year expenses, while his analysis captured revenues.

But Ouchi also said the most important fact in his report was the separate finding that, when all spending by all state agencies is taken into account, Hawai'i spent $10,422 per student in the 2002-03 school year, a figure the DOE doesn't dispute.

"I think it's the only one that is not subject to interpretation," he said yesterday.

Ouchi's report, prepared with Bruce Cooper of Fordham University in New York, was criticized by the DOE as distorted. DOE officials believe the consultants purposely chose numbers that put the student-spending figures as high as possible to bolster the perception that the DOE has more than enough money.

DOE officials also said the report relied on calculations that differed from those typically used by the National Center for Education Statistics to compare student spending by states. Education Week uses numbers from the national center in its state comparisons, which exclude spending on school construction and debt and other things that last for more than one school year.

Ouchi, who characterized school spending as a "political football," said school districts have few incentives to add up the total costs.

"The number that was in the Education Week story was silly," he said.

Reach Derrick DePledge at ddepledge@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8084.