We continue to watch with great concern as the intense and sometimes emotional debate over school funding continues in Richmond.

What strikes us after the bevy of meetings this week and last by the School Board, City Council and community groups is this: Richmond is united by one goal — to provide the best education possible for our children.

However, the chief question that greatly divides us is: How much money do we need to do that?

Mayor Dwight C. Jones says there is no more money to give to Richmond Public Schools. The School Board says it needs $18 million more than the mayor’s proposed budget offers. City Council appears on course to fund $4 million more to go to pay hikes for teachers.

Meanwhile, the School Board has approved changes to pupil transportation plans and OK’d a plan to close two buildings to shave its needs by $1 million. 

Are all of these actions enough to get Richmond to its desired goal of better schools?

That’s the multimillion-dollar question. We suggest that the school system owes it to parents, students, advocates, taxpayers, public and elected officials and community members — all who have a stake in this debate — to look deep to see where it can make marked improvements with what it has.

These critical and significant money issues are not unique to Richmond. Across the nation, people are grappling with the chasm between their dream of educating their children and paying for it.

Interestingly, National Public Radio began a weekly series Monday that will examine education in America. The first installment: Why America’s Schools Have a Money Problem.

We recommend it to our Free Press readers. NPR has gathered statistics from across the nation and includes on its website a map that shows average spending per student by school district across the United States. The national average is $11,841.

In Virginia, according to the NPR information, the average is $10,044 per student, which is less than the national average.

However, in Richmond, the average spending per student is $13,901, an amount well above the national average. By comparison, it’s also higher than all the surrounding school districts, including Henrico, Chesterfield, Hanover and New Kent, which spend less than the national average per pupil.

That data raises a myriad of questions about why Richmond spends more money, but clearly suffers with substandard school buildings and resources for our children’s education.

Where is the money going? How is it being spent?

We invite our readers to look at the NPR series at http://www.npr.org/2016/04/18/474256366/why-americas-schools-have-a-money-problem and to become a part of the debate in Richmond. The article includes the circumstances of the largely black public school system in Sumter County, Ala., and photos of a classroom in its Livingston Junior High School with broken ceiling tiles, leaky roof and buckled floor, suggesting health-threatening mold.

It sounded all too eerily familiar to what Richmond students have and are experiencing.

The problem, while daunting, is critical to the future of our children and the City of Richmond. It may take many minds and skills to get Richmond’s educational system back on track.