If for the past five years you had increased your payment in an investment by 55 percent, yet the return remained dismal, would you continue to increase your contribution — or even contribute — to that investment? Probably not, but that is exactly what the Department of Education is asking of every taxpaying citizen of Hawai'i.

It is time for the truth.

I am requesting a management audit of the Department of Education by State Auditor Marion Higa for the following reasons: The Department of Education receives nearly a quarter of the state's operating budget; appropriations for fiscal years 2002 through 2007 have increased from $1.4 billion to $2.2 billion; during that same period, the statewide student population decreased by approximately 4,000 students — from 183,629 to 179,234; per-student costs have risen from $7,800 to $12,455.

In spite of the 59 percent increase in per-student spending, Hawai'i still ranks very near the bottom of the list for test scores. Children enrolled in public schools in Hawai'i are just as capable of achieving educational success as children in every other state, and our teachers are dedicated and proficient. What, then, is the problem with our system?

In 2001, the federal No Child Left Behind Act went into effect. It required states to ensure that all students meet or exceed the state's proficiency level of academic achievement in mathematics, reading and science.

However, a Department of Budget and Finance report in January 2007 states that "although in the school years 2005 through 2006, approximately 85 percent of the public schools do not meet various NCLB performance standards, the Department of Education spent less than half the federal school improvement grant money it received."

The DOE has not fared much better in its allocation of federal funds in other years. In fiscal year 2003, the carryover balance was $42 million. By 2004, it had increased to $50 million and in fiscal year 2005, $60.6 million remained unspent. The DOE as of fiscal year 2006 still had $53.8 million left unspent in spite of 85 percent of the public schools not meeting the NCLB standards. Ironically, the Department of Education is now attempting to blame 40 years of dismal results on alleged under-funded NCLB mandates.

PricewaterhouseCoopers, an independent accounting firm, said in a recent audit, "The lack of transparency made it difficult, and in some cases impossible, to determine whether many public-school programs were achieving their objectives and whether taxpayer dollars were being spent wisely." Its report continued, "Roughly one-third of the department's 278 state-funded programs had inadequate systems in place to monitor their effectiveness, and at least 1 in 5 suffered from insufficient oversight of program spending, and many programs completely lacked either."

Last year, the state auditor uncovered numerous managerial and financial problems at Kailua High School. The audit concluded that the Department of Education had not provided adequate support to Hawai'i's public school system, including Kailua High School, for the implementation of No Child Left Behind Act (remember the $53.8 million unspent in 2006 in NCLB federal funds?). The state auditor continued, "The measures that the Department of Education uses to determine the effectiveness of its budget are irrelevant, inaccurate and ambiguous ... and are based on assumptions, estimates and unverified data. ... as a result, legislators are denied potentially valuable information, and some may be basing their fiscal decisions on flawed data."

The February issue of BOE Highlights states that "the Board of Education has approved the establishment of the Department of Education's Office of Fiscal Services." More money for the bureaucracy. Any increased funding must go to the classroom level and to the teachers, not to the bureaucracy.

The last comprehensive audit of the entire Department of Education organization, management process and personnel administration was 34 years ago. It is time for the truth. Legislators need accurate data to make fiscal decisions. The taxpayers should demand it.

Sen. Fred Hemmings represents District 25 (Kailua, Waimanalo, Hawai'i Kai). He wrote this commentary for The Advertiser.