The Grassroot Institute of Hawaii has released a new policy brief outlining how the Hawaii taxpayer keeps feeding the education system with more dollars for diminishing returns. "Getting Less for More–Feeding the Government Education System in Hawaii" examines how Hawaii spends almost $14,000 per student annually yet consistently ranks near the bottom on test scores and scholastic achievement rankings. The brief was written by Policy Intern Kenny Lee, a student at Hawaii Pacific University majoring in Finance.

"The Hawaii tax payer deserves an explanation as to why we keep putting more and more money into an education system that is obviously broken and providing diminishing returns," explained Grassroot Institute President Jamie Story. "We again call on the Hawaii Department of Education to embrace full transparency and open its financial checkbook so the community can see how its money is being spent. Perhaps together we can help DOE find a better, more cost effective way to educate our children," she said.

The new brief, which is available free from the Institute's Web site, also found that the DOE's budget has increased from $972 million eight years ago to $2.4 billion today, while Hawaii students remain behind the rest of the United States in tests like the SAT. The report goes on to show that the proposed $46 million budget reduction requested recently is a mere 1.9 percent of the total DOE budget.

Earlier this year, the Grassroot Institute embarked on a new initiative to bring transparency and accountability to Hawaii state and local government, including the Department of Education.

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