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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Friday, August 2, 2002

Lingle plan for schools gets educators' critique

By Lynda Arakawa
Advertiser Capitol Bureau

In her campaign for governor, Republican Linda Lingle is placing special emphasis on improving public education through a radical overhaul that would dismantle the existing system and bulldoze what she sees as a bloated bureaucracy.

Among Lingle's proposals: Redirect 50 percent of the money spent for the Department of Education's centralized bureaucracy to the classroom or local school level; decentralize the school system and create seven locally elected school boards; and explore giving parents of special-needs students vouchers that would enable them to send their children to private schools.

While dissatisfaction with the public schools crosses nearly all political and ideological lines, some of what Lingle is proposing appears to be difficult, if not impossible, to achieve politically, financially and practically, education experts say. Some also say it is unclear whether such proposals would actually help students learn more and raise their level of achievement.

"Actually, there is nothing here to dislike," said Michael Fassiotto, director of Chaminade University's department of education, of Lingle's education proposals. "But on the other hand, it's just a question of how would it be done."

Here's a look at some of what Lingle, who is leading in the polls and faces only nominal opposition in the September primary election, has proposed for Hawai'i schools:

Cut half of bureaucracy

Last week, as she unveiled her plan for governing, titled "A New Beginning for Hawai'i," Lingle was not specific about how much money she believes is spent on the department's administration, saying simply that she wants to redirect half of whatever it is for the schools.

"The reason we selected that way of saying it is because every time you mention a dollar amount or how much is currently being spent on this or that, there's always, 'Oh, no, no, you just don't have the right figures' or 'No, you just don't understand,'" Lingle said.

"So we're saying: Whatever figure you say it is that's currently being spent by central bureaucracy in the Department of Education, half of it has to go down into the classroom level.

"We want to get money to the schools where the children are. So whether it's for supplies in the classroom or whether it's for another counselor at the school level, it's for spending on the children and making sure the teachers have the supplies they need rather than monies being wasted at the bureaucratic level."

Of the $1.3 billion DOE budget for the fiscal year that began July 1, about $26.5 million — 2 percent — is for services labeled "state administration." The $26.5 million pays for administrative functions such as personnel services, payroll, business operations and maintaining student records. It covers 362 permanent positions and 32 temporary positions.

About $912 million — or about 70 percent of the DOE operating budget — is spent on school-level costs, including wages for teachers, principals and other staff. About $221 million, roughly 17 percent, is for special-education services.

The National Center for Education Statistics says that in 1998, U.S. public school systems spent about 2 percent on administration.

"You're asking a state system that has anywhere from 20,000 to 40,000 employees, 250 school campuses, that the support for all of these items be done with $13 million," said state schools superintendent Pat Hamamoto.

She said that the department has gone through budget cuts over the years and that the money for state and district administration has always been the first to be reduced.

"If the infrastructure is reduced by half and we're already at bare bones, then what you're saying is that the function of support will have to go onto the schools. I just couldn't fathom how we would be able to support the schools on 1 percent of the budget," she said.

DOE spokesman Greg Knudsen said that more administrative work will be needed to comply with the recently enacted No Child Left Behind Act, a new federal law stipulating that schools in high poverty areas must maintain adequate academic performance levels or pay the transportation costs of students who choose to go to other public schools with higher achievement ratings.

Lingle has not addressed how she would deal with the impact of the No Child Left Behind Act.

Randy Hitz, dean of the College of Education at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa, declined to address Lingle's education proposal directly but said he doesn't believe that the schools' administration is too large. He cited another national study showing that Hawai'i's school system has a smaller percentage of administrative positions than the national average.

"There's some evidence that it is under-administered," he said. "I think even some teachers will say that that's the case because a lot of the responsibilities that used to go to administration are kind of dumped down on the teachers.

"Another thing I would point out is that there are some inefficiencies, and the inefficiencies are oftentimes related to a lack of upgrading technology — for example, where we got people using methods that are 20 and 30 years out of date. ... It's almost an underinvestment that causes inefficiency. And it's inefficient, by the way, to have teachers doing administrative work."

Chaminade's Fassiotto said he was skeptical of Lingle's proposal.

"I don't see that with the limited number of funds that is currently put into education, how half the funds could be sent to the local school level," he said.

"How you can insist that that happens without causing major, major problems? ... I don't know how you're going to do that."

Fassiotto did, however, agree that a special audit of the Department of Education should be conducted to pinpoint where the money is going, a proposal made by both Lingle and one of the Democratic gubernatorial candidates, Lt. Gov. Mazie Hirono.

"I think that's a great idea," Fassiotto said.

"I think it would give people confidence in the system, in the Board of Education and the DOE itself."

The Hawai'i State Teachers Association declined to comment for this story.

Local school boards

Lingle also called for decentralizing the school system by creating seven locally elected school boards, calling it key to improving public education.

"You're going to have some community-based decision-making where teachers and parents and community members can have a real impact and a real ability to be a part of the school and it's not like it is now," she said. "It's too big for anyone to make an impact."

Locally elected school boards have been debated for years and are a key issue of the Hawai'i Republican Party. Advocates say local boards would know their schools and their communities better and would be in a better position to decide how resources are deployed. Detractors say the system would simply create seven mini-bureaucracies and political fiefdoms with policies and standards that may vary widely from district to district.

The proposal came closer than ever to passing the Legislature this year, but it was derailed by the Senate in conference committee. Senate Education Committee Chairman Norman Sakamoto, who headed negotiations for the Senate, said the measure lacked details about how the school board plan would work.

"There wasn't enough time to clearly articulate some of those as well as show that, indeed, student achievement would be improved with this part of the change," he said.

Hamamoto said that while she believes such a configuration would cost the state less, she has not seen any evidence supporting that or showing improved student achievement under a local board system.

Fassiotto said that while there is an intuitive argument to support local school boards, he hasn't seen any national studies showing good or bad effects of such a structure.

Hirono said creating more school boards would increase the school bureaucracy.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate D.G. "Andy" Anderson said he has concerns that the state would pay more attention to outspoken boards and ignore those with less aggressive members.

State Rep. Ed Case, also a Democratic candidate for governor, said Lingle is following him and others in pushing to decentralize the system by creating seven locally elected school boards. Case and House Republicans last session introduced a measure that would have replaced the state Board of Education with seven district boards.

Special-needs vouchers

Lingle wants to consider giving vouchers to parents of children who require services under the Felix consent decree, the federal mandate to improve mental health services for students with physical and mental disabilities. Vouchers would pay for private tuition. She has not estimated the cost of such a plan.

"The current system seems completely incapable of delivering quality services," she said. "The chance for children and their families to get appropriate services possibly could work better if we gave parents an opportunity to purchase these services privately. I think more schools would develop to help children with special needs.

"The reason I think it's worth exploring is because of the magnitude of the failure up to this point. To me, it stresses that we have just got to look at another way."

Lingle said she is opposed to across-the-board vouchers for regular students.

But Knudsen said: "Any voucher proposal is a foot in the door that would just be made wider and wider and would have a negative effect on the support for the public school system."

There are about 21,000 special-education children in the state, and about 10,000 of those are covered by the Felix decision, meaning that they require mental health services. The Department of Education already sends some students to private schools and other providers when the state cannot meet their needs.

Education experts say they doubt that private schools could handle an influx of students covered by vouchers.

"I don't know how realistic it is to expect that some of the private providers are going to be able to serve special-needs kids, because that's the most expensive service in the system," Hitz said. "I wouldn't rule it out, but I'm just curious about how feasible that is."

• On the Web:

D.G. "Andy" Anderson: www.andy2002 .org

Ed Case: www.edcase.com

Mazie Hirono: www.maziehirono.org

Linda Lingle: www.lindalingle.com

John Carroll: www.carrollforhawaii.com