Posted on: Friday, December 7, 2001

School board told cuts may hurt students

By Jennifer Hiller
Advertiser Education Writer

An impending $7.1 million budget cut at the Department of Education will force the schools to trim services so much it will be detrimental to students, administration officials said.

Interim Superintendent Pat Hamamoto has told school board members in a memo that the cuts will directly affect classroom education and the health and safety of the learning environment. The DOE may have to consider employee furloughs, program restrictions and deletions, reduction in per-pupil spending and the elimination of basic infrastructure support, she said.

In the past, the department has been able to shelter classrooms and students from budget cuts, but the state has repeatedly trimmed budgets as tax collections stalled during the 1990s.

The Board of Education met last night on Moloka'i to begin tackling the latest financial problems to hit the school system; more concrete decisions on which programs will be affected won't happen at least until the board's next meeting Thursday.

By then, members will have had a chance to meet with Gov. Ben Cayetano, who has said the DOE also must another $14.4 million from its budget next year.

The governor has been scrambling to trim budgets for all departments since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that caused visitor arrivals to plummet and a sudden slowing in state tax collections.

The general treasury budget for the school system is $1.28 billion this year, and $1.33 billion next year.

The cuts are part of $48 million that has to be sliced from the state's two-year general treasury budget.

The latest estimates are that the state will collect $150 million less in taxes than had been expected this year, and $160 million less than expected next year, requiring abrupt spending cuts to balance the budget.

Reach Jennifer Hiller at jhiller@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8084.