Hawaii's nonlocal school funding

With respect to the cover story ``States Seek Fairer School Funding,'' March 28: I am puzzled by the statement, ``New Hampshire has the highest level of local support at 89 percent and New Mexico the lowest level of local funding at 11.2 percent ....''

According to the map/chart, it seems that Hawaii, at 1.9 percent local funding would claim the lowest level.

As a former resident of Hawaii, I recall that all elmentary- and secondary-level public schooling was largely state-funded, and indeed, public-school teachers were considered state employees.

Would it not be worthwhile to examine the success of public education in Hawaii, which maintains a long-standing tradition of non-local funding for public schools? Becky Ikehara, North Brookfield, Mass.

* Editor's note: The map referred to above is correct. The article should have specified that New Mexico has the lowest level of local funding in the 48 contiguous states.

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