State caught in Felix dilemma
| • | Strike enters third week |
| • | Advertiser special: The Teacher Contract Crisis |
By Alice Keesing
Advertiser Education Writer
The state risks federal court intervention if it does not resolve the teachers' strike by tomorrow, but it faces another equally serious concern.
Today's 10 a.m. conference will address stringent cuts made by the House and Senate in the biennium budget requests from the departments of education and health for compliance with the Felix consent decree. The move may result in the court taking tighter control over state money and the school system and lengthening the court's oversight.
The Felix decree was issued by U.S. District Judge David Ezra in 1994 after he found the state's special education services to be woefully inadequate. The departments of education and health face a December deadline to improve services for special-needs students.
The court-appointed monitor says the departments have made significant progress, but it will be jeopardized if legislators don't provide the necessary money.
"Right now, I'm recommending that the court focus on getting that funding," said monitor Ivor Groves. "If the Legislature were to go ahead and appropriate those dollars, then I don't know that I would recommend that the court do anything now. If the Legislature doesn't do that, then I'm clearly going to recommend that the court issue an order that the executive branch find those dollars."
In his written recommendations filed in federal court last week, Groves suggested granting schools chief Paul LeMahieu and health director Bruce Anderson more power to cut through state laws that are holding up compliance. As a last resort, Groves also is recommending fines.
The Felix consent decree has cost the state more than $1.35 billion since 1995. Legislators are frustrated with the constant demands of the consent decree. They say the governor's office and the attorney general entered into the decree, and they have been relegated to writing a blank check to pay for it.
"I know Judge Ezra has waved his finger at us to tell us to keep out of it, but you know we're the elected officials, we're the ones who are there on the line, we're the ones who are accountable to the taxpayers," said Sen. Colleen Hanabusa, Senate Ways and Means Committee vice chairwoman. "So to tell us keep out of it, to me, is an interference with the whole manner in which this state was meant to operate."
Hanabusa and other legislators say they want to be sure Felix money is well spent and that money is left over for other state programs. And they point to the recent drawn-out battle over the departments' emergency request as justification for their scrutiny. At the beginning of the session, the departments asked for $158 million. House lawmakers held up approval while they examined how money was being spent. The departments dropped their requests to $70 million.
LeMahieu and Anderson vehemently defend the reductions. LeMahieu said his department was able to lower its request because it was unable to recruit the number of people it was supposed to. Anderson said his department's savings came from newer, more cost-efficient practices.
Legislators remain unconvinced.
"It was an almost $50 million drop (for the Education Department)," said Hanabusa, D-21st (Kalaeloa, Makaha). "There's something there that either was inflated or something ... $50 million is a lot of money."
In the biennium budget, which Ezra will consider today, the House and Senate cut the Education Department's request in half, leaving it short $32 million. Anderson said the Health Department could be $15 million short.
Anderson said he finds the cuts particularly confusing because the axed programs were new practices that are more cost-effective.
According to court documents, today's status conference is to determine if a formal hearing is needed to resolve the "apparent funding deficiencies" and to permit the court to determine what remedies or sanctions are needed.
"I think the department, to a large extent, feels that they can always use Judge Ezra against the Legislature ... and say, 'Well, you've just got to give us this money, and we're just going to tell them that you're not cooperating.' " Hanabusa said.
Ezra has set another hearing for tomorrow in connection with the teachers' strike. Unless the walkout is resolved, he will consider a motion asking him to appoint a receiver over the education system to ensure special-education services are restored.
