A new study by the American Legislative Exchange Council ranked Hawai'i 49th in the nation when comparing results on national tests such as the SAT and ACT to spending on education.

According to the report, Hawai'i's standardized test scores have shown little improvement despite increases in spending on public education.

Hawai'i ranked 16th in the nation for per-pupil expenditures, spending $9,897 per student during the 2006-07 school year. That's an increase from a decade before that, when the state spent $6,908 and ranked 31st in the nation for per student spending.

But while Hawai'i's spending on education has increased over the past decade, the report says that Hawai'i's scores on standardized tests have shown little improvement.

Hawai'i students earned an average composite score of 983 on the College Board's SAT exam in 2008, ranking the state 49th in the nation. That compares with an average composite score of 996 in 1998, when the state was ranked 43rd.

Hawai'i's ACT scores ranked 26th in the nation.

"The rankings of the states by ALEC based on standardized tests, in particular the SAT and ACT, are meaningless," said Sandy Goya, spokeswoman for the state Department of Education.

She points out that College Board SAT scores and ACT scores cannot be compared state-by-state since not all students take those tests.

Even the College Board itself cautions against doing school-by-school or state-by-state comparisons of SAT scores noting that demographics, self-selection and test participation tend to have a strong effect on scores, Goya said.

But state Sen. Sam Slom said the report supports his position that spending is increasing while student achievement is not.

"More money is being paid in and nothing is coming out," Slom said. "Taxpayers have a right to see accountability."

Slom admits that comparing results of college entrance exams such as the SAT may not necessarily be an apples-to-apples comparison.

"I don't think everything should revolve around test scores. But it is a recognized measure," he said.

The state Department of Education's operating budget has grown from about $972 million in the 1999-2000 school year to $2.4 billion in 2008-09.

A number of factors have contributed to the increase in the DOE budget. A substantial transfer of services happened back in 2001 when the DOE took on its employee benefit costs and debt servicing, which were originally handled by the state Department of Budget and Finance. Those costs account for $708 million per year. Special-education spending has also increased by about $300 million over the past 10 years, Goya said.

"Since these items alone account for more than the $1 billion growth, it is clear that the DOE base budget has increased, but not with respect to its programmatic needs and unfunded federal mandates such as the No Child Left Behind Act," Goya said.

The Report Card on American Education is released annually by the American Legislative Exchange Council, a nonprofit organization made up of about 2,000 state legislators and former members of U.S. Congress. It was established in 1973 by conservative lawmakers and advocates including Henry Hyde, Paul Weyrich and Lou Barnett.

The report also examined and ranked Hawai'i's scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which tests fourth- and eighth-graders in math and reading.

In 2007, Hawai'i's fourth-grade math and reading scores ranked 42nd and 44th in the nation, respectively. Likewise, Hawai'i's eighth-grade math and reading scores both ranked 47th in the nation.

Goya, however, said the report does not examine the growth in the NAEP scores over the past several years.

"In 2007, Hawai'i was the only state in the nation to improve in both subjects and both grades," she said. "The gap between Hawai'i scores and the national averages have also narrowed in each subject and grade," she said.

In the overall report, Mississippi and the District of Columbia were the only two jurisdictions to rank lower than Hawai'i in the report. Minnesota, Vermont and Massachusetts ranked at the top.