---

Gathering Places

JIM SHON

---

Hawaii schools need
more money, not less

---

This year we have heard a lot of debate about the nature of our educational system. What follows is intended to assist the voters and policy makers in their efforts to sort out fact from myth. Candidates and voters are asking how much we are spending on public education, or if we are spending too much on professional administrators rather than teachers -- the "bloated bureaucracy" concern.

The following may help in our debates over how to improve our schools.

Question: What percentage of state and local revenue is allocated to public schools?

Answer: In 1997-98 (the latest figures available) the national average was $24.4 percent per state. Hawaii spent 14.8 percent of all public revenues on K-12 education.

Q.: How much do we spend on each pupil in public school?

A.: According to Education Week, the national average in 2001 was $7,079. Hawaii spent $6,391 per pupil. The state with the highest per pupil expenditure was New Jersey, at $10,787; the state with the lowest was Utah, spending $4,372 per pupil.

Q.: What percentage of the total Department of Education staff are actually teachers?

A.: The national average in 1999 was 51.7 percent of all staff actually teaching, and Hawaii was second in the nation, with 60.7 percent of total staff serving as classroom teachers. The No. 1 state was Rhode Island with 61.6 percent. The state with the lowest percentage was Kentucky with only 45 percent of total staff being teachers.

Q.: What percentage of the total DOE professional staff are working outside the schools in administrative functions?

A.: The national average is 3.9 percent. Hawaii's DOE employs 2.2 percent of total professional staff in district administrative functions.

Q.: Are Hawaii's schools larger that mainland schools?

A.: The national average for pupils in elementary schools is 482, while Hawaii averages 607. The national average for secondary schools is 785, while Hawaii averages 1,334.

These facts tell us several things about Hawaii. First, that we are pretty far behind the national average for percentage of public funds allocated to public education -- 10 percentage points. Second, they suggest that we rank high in percentage of total staff serving as teachers, and are quite lean in terms of the percentage of professionals serving in administrative support roles outside the schools. A typical Hawaii high school might spend from $4,000 to $5,000 per pupil at the school, and about $120 per pupil on state and district administration.

Third, Hawaii's schools are significantly larger on average than those on the mainland. This last tidbit is important because research indicates that smaller schools are more effective in educating students, particularly those from poor families.

It is not politically correct to suggest that part of the solution might be more funding, but the data presented above would seem to indicate that we are, by comparison, not the most generous in our funding of public education.

---

Jim Shon is associate director of the Hawaii Educational Policy Center.