The United States places first in public and private school spending compared to other major countries, but students perform lower in areas such as math, reading and science, a new report shows.

Such a discrepancy raises questions for both students and educators.

Michelle Raydo (senior-education) said she was unsure why other countries fare better than the United States using less money, but stressed the importance of education at any cost.

"Every cent spent on education is completely worth it," Raydo said. "It's the basis for our society."

According to the report from the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the United States spent $10,240 total per student from elementary school through college in 2000. In more than 25 other nations, the average cost per student was $6,361. The range stretched from less than $3,000 per student in Turkey, Mexico, the Slovak Republic and Poland to more than $8,000 per student in Denmark, Norway, Austria and Switzerland, the report said.

"The report is one of a number of indicators that there's a lot of room for growth in American education," said Jim Bradshaw, spokesman for the U.S. Department of Education. "The public is more and more aware that we need to make an effort. We're committed to building the best possible education programs we can."

Manal Dimachkie (senior-education) said a reason for the deficiencies could be that the United States concentrates more on other aspects of education than other countries do.

"The focus here is on extra-curricular activities, on being well-rounded," Manal Dimachkie (senior-education) said. "Overseas, it's very 'math and science.' I guess that's why they're ahead of us."

The United States finished moderately for performance of its 15-year-olds in math, reading and science in 2000, the report said.

"Reading scores have remained relatively flat at a time when spending has increased in federal education programs," Bradshaw said. "It was the main reason the No Child Left Behind Act was passed by Congress. It promotes accountability, teacher quality and more testing."

Kelly Cooper (junior-education) said there is too much emphasis on standardized testing. "Sometimes teachers teach just to pass tests and not to understand concepts and actually learn something," she said. "The classes I take now don't really prepare you for when you're going to be a teacher."

David Shreve, senior director of the education committee for the National Conference of State Legislatures, said school spending will not be reduced.

"It increases every year, and ninety-plus percent of it goes to salary and personnel costs," he said. "[The report] will make people look more closely at school spending patterns."

William Johnson, communications manager for the Pennsylvania State Education Association, said these types of reports have been under scrutiny in the past. "I would question the report. Those in the past have not necessarily compared apples to apples," he said. "How do you judge progress? There's no consistent way of doing that between countries."

Johnson said that in other countries, students are placed into the workforce or higher education depending on their performance. "This country tries to educate everybody," he said.

Shreve said the real issue is the gap between money spent on students of different economic classes.

"Kids in upper-middle-class and middle-class neighborhoods are at the high end and kids who are poor and might need additional resources are at the low end," he said. "We put a lot of resources into kids who don't need it, and not enough for kids who need it to thrive."