A recent report from the Economic Policy Institute says the United States spends less on primary and secondary education than most other industrialized nations. The institute, a research organization in Washington, D.C., compared the percentage of national income spent during 1985 on education from preprimary through high school in 16 nations, including most of Western Europe, Japan, Australia, Canada and the United States. The figure for the United States was 4 percent, less than the spending levels for 11 other countries. If the spending figures are adjusted for the size of the school-age population in each country, only Australia and Ireland spent less than the United States on education from preprimary to 12th grade.