Education: Short Change

George Bush has no patience for those who accuse him of stinting on public education. As he told Governors last fall, the U.S. "lavishes unsurpassed resources" on schooling. Last week that claim was strongly challenged by the Economic Policy Institute (E.P.I.), a Washington-based think tank. In a 29- page report based on data published by the Federal Government and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the institute concludes that the U.S. spends relatively less on elementary and secondary education than 13 other industrialized countries, including Japan, West Germany, France and the Netherlands.

According to the report, Shortchanging Education, only Ireland and Australia invest less than the U.S. in basic education in terms of a percentage of gross national product. Of the 16 countries studied, Sweden spends the most (7%), followed by Austria (5.9%), Switzerland (5.8%), Norway (5.3%) and Belgium (4.9%). Denmark and Japan tied at 4.8%, while the U.S. spends only 4.1%. "If the U.S. were to increase spending for primary and secondary school up to the 'average' level found in the other 15 countries," the study says, "we would need to raise spending by over $20 billion annually."

The report charges that Bush's claims of largesse are misleading because his figures are inflated by the hefty public and private sums spent on colleges and universities. With this spending included, the U.S. places second among the countries surveyed. But when money for higher education is not included, the U.S. falls from second to nearly last. That low ranking is all the more disturbing, the report maintains, because the "current crisis in American schools" is centered in the elementary and secondary grades.

The Bush Administration is not amused by E.P.I.'s new math. An Education Department rebuttal says the institute has mixed "apples, oranges and moonbeams to produce an indigestible concoction." By measuring education spending as a percentage of national income instead of comparing dollars spent, it says, E.P.I. uses a methodology that is "seriously flawed." But the study does, in fact, compare per pupil expenditures as well. Result: the U.S. comes in ninth out of 16. "No matter how you do it, we're a low spender," says Lawrence Mishel, co-author of the report. "We're definitely not as Bush claims. We don't spend lavishly on our kids."