School cuts: Doing the math

By Jennifer Hiller
Advertiser Education Writer

State schools superintendent Pat Hamamoto last night offered a "reality check" to the budget-cut scenarios circulating at the Legislature: the loss of 133 to 436 teacher positions in the next school year.

The head of the teachers union, meanwhile, estimated that budget cuts could cost 600 jobs, including about 200 vacant positions.

Hamamoto told the Board of Education that public schools would lose all of the part-time teachers in the English as a Second Language program, 36 Hawaiian studies teachers, four Hawaiian immersion teachers, six teachers from the alternative learning centers and nine teachers from the pregnant teen centers if a 2 percent, or $14.5 million, cut is made in the Department of Education's budget. Under that scenario 133 teaching jobs would be cut.

If the budget cut reaches the proposed 5 percent level, or $35 million, the department would raise the student-teacher ratio in all kindergarten, first- and second-grade classes from 20:1 to 23:1, Hamamoto said.

An additional 303 teaching positions would be lost, which could mean the department would not renew the contracts of some of its provisional teachers.

"I believe it means every elementary school will be affected," Hamamoto said.

Most of the state's kindergarten classes already exceed the 20-student target the school board set in the late '80s, meaning that the class size would likely grow to around 25 or 26 students with the loss of teachers.

Legislators have warned the schools that they could lose 5 percent of their budget next year. The DOE's 2003 budget is $1.47 billion, about 20 percent of the state budget.

All state agencies are facing severe cuts as legislators deal with a post-Sept. 11 drop in tax revenue.

Karen Ginoza, president of the Hawaii State Teachers Association, told the board members that the union estimates as many as 600 jobs could be lost.

Ginoza also scolded board members for not appearing more often at the Legislature to testify in favor of education spending and programs.

"It's your duty to fight for the budget. It's your duty to fight for education," Ginoza said.

While legislators have signaled a willingness to take at least some of the $213 million in the hurricane relief fund to help balance the budget, Hamamoto said legislators have been telling her to prepare for a 5 percent cut as realistic and a 2 percent cut as the minimum.

"Until we are very certain we will get the hurricane funding, this is the black and white," she said. "Those are the numbers."

School board members at a meeting last night saw a continual parade of students and teachers from threatened programs pleading for their budgets to be spared.

Sharon Nakatani, a first-grade teacher at Kaimiloa Elementary School in 'Ewa Beach, said most kindergartners already enter school with no preschool experience and an inability to identify letters, numbers, shapes or colors. Increasing the class size would make it more difficult for teachers to get students caught up on basic academics, she said.

Several athletic directors, who are facing severe cuts in their programs, also made a case to the board and said they have been visiting legislators to make their case.

Neal Takamori, athletic director at McKinley High School, said his school already must find $30,000 each year through fund-raising efforts to meet its basic budget needs. He wondered how athletic departments, which serve 42,000 students, would deal with cuts that reach 50 percent in some areas:

"Would the most expensive sports be out first? The most recently added? Title IX?"

R-Nel Valdez, 18, a senior at McKinley High School, teared up when he told board members that he thought his life was over before entering the parenting program at his school, one of several across the state whose financing is threatened. His girlfriend was pregnant, and he was flunking every class.

Now Valdez has a 3.5 GPA and is applying to Kapi'olani Community College to pursue a nursing career. "They helped me through all of my problems," he said. "I didn't even think I was going to graduate."

Board members listened sympathetically, but noted that legislators across the street at the state Capitol were the ones who really needed to hear their impassioned testimony.

"I want to make it very plain that the board is not cutting these funds," said chairman Herbert Watanabe. "We want every penny that's in the budget."