Capitol zeroes in on education issues this year

By Jennifer Hiller
Advertiser Education Writer

Last year, special education dominated the public schools conversation at the State Capitol.

	More independence proposed
	Some of the bills being discussed at the Legislature would:
•	Let the DOE manage its money independent from the state's Department of Accounting and General Services.
•	Let the DOE manage its own personnel and establish new positions, independent from the state's Department of Labor and Industrial Relations and Department of Human Resources Development.
•	Propose constitutional autonomy for the DOE, similar to the University of Hawai'i.
•	Require an external audit.
•	Give a fixed portion of the general excise tax to DOE.
•	Not allow line-item veto of education items in the budget.
•	Provide debit cards for teachers and principals to acquire supplies.
•	Look at how cities and counties could contribute to the school system.
•	Eliminate the state Board of Education and create local boards at the district or complex levels instead.

With numerous proposals floating through the halls of the Capitol, it seems that the public school system's vast bureaucracy is in for some tinkering this year.

"You can imagine we're going to see a flurry of bills," said board member Karen Knudsen. "We often do. It's an election year."

Among the ideas, Democrats would give the DOE a fixed portion of the general excise tax, remove other state agencies from interfering with education spending and dramatically reduce the governor's role in the public schools.

Republicans will focus on decentralization; their proposals would eliminate the Board of Education entirely and — at a minimum — break Hawai'i's statewide system into smaller school districts.

"We want to break it down at least to the seven districts in the state," said state Rep. Guy Ontai, R-39th (Wheeler Army Airfield, Mililani). "It's too big and too hard to find any information about your school district right now. We want to make that problem smaller. Right now, for us to get a sidewalk repaired in Mililani, I've got to wait for a bureaucrat downtown to decide it's a priority. It takes longer than building a new building."

The bills from the Democratic and Republican leadership are coming at a critical time for education and during a transitional year for public schools.

Under the leadership of a new superintendent, the Hawai'i school system this semester will roll out a new standardized test, reorganize its vast bureaucracy and could begin to disentangle itself from federal court oversight of the special education system. Also, legislators are looking to extend an investigation into special education spending that led to the resignation of the last superintendent and raised questions about conflicts of interest in contracts.

'De facto superintendent'

Some of the most talked-about proposals would remove the governor from the collective bargaining process with the teachers union, prohibit him from making line-item changes in the DOE's budget and take away his authority to restrict already-approved education money.

Now, for example, school officials and legislators are still waiting for Gov. Ben Cayetano to release $75 million in school repairs and maintenance money that was passed during the fall's special legislative session.

"We have a governor who is essentially a de facto superintendent. Nobody thinks that makes any sense," said Brian Schatz, D-24th (Makiki, Tantalus, Manoa), who is helping to author much of the proposed education legislation. "Schools become political chips in the big poker game. If we give money to Roosevelt (High School), it still has to go through the governor. That's just not how it works anywhere else."

David Ericson, chairman of the Department of Educational Foundations at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa, also said the governor's role should be reduced by not allowing him to withhold money that the Legislature has approved. Also, Ericson said contract negotiations between the DOE and the union would likely cause less fireworks than the ones seen last spring, when teachers went on strike for 19 days.

"It doesn't end up in the political warfare we've seen between the governor and the (Hawai'i State Teachers Association). The stakes wouldn't be as politically high during negotiations," Ericson said.

A mitigating force to the proposed legislative changes could be new schools chief Pat Hamamoto, who started this fall and is in the process of reorganizing the department. Board members are hoping that legislators will leave the department structure alone to give Hamamoto room to make her own changes.

"I'm sorry everything is happening right now," Knudsen said. "I'd like to see the superintendent move forward. Going into shake up the department for the sake of shaking us up is not going to get us anywhere. Let's work the implementation through and see. Let's be careful and cautious. We can't afford to keep making mistakes."

District structure replaced

In a move popular among legislators, Hamamoto has emphasized the role of school complexes, which are high schools and their feeder elementary and middle schools. She replaced the traditional structure that divided the state into seven smaller districts with one that emphasizes smaller complexes and smoother transitions between grade levels.

"Yes, the district structure that has existed for as long as any of us can remember has been replaced," Hamamoto told members of the House Finance and Senate Ways and Means committees Thursday.

But Schatz said the changes to the educational system are gaining support. "The idea is fiscal and administrative independence, to get the DOE to not be treated as another state agency," Schatz said. "The fact that a principal has to worry about DAGS shows that something isn't right in the system."

Board autonomy

Karen Ginoza, president of the Hawai'i State Teachers Association, the union that represents the state's 13,000 public school teachers, said giving autonomy to the Board of Education would go a long way toward improving the school system. "Education is just education that way," Ginoza said. "It won't become a political football like we were last time."

While schools officials aren't against the idea of more independence and control over their budget, they're cautious that the new freedoms could come at a price. One proposal would give the Department of Education a fixed percentage of the general excise tax as a base on which to operate.

"There's so many proposals that are bouncing around," said Donna Ikeda, vice chairwoman of the Board of Education. "Without seeing the legislation, my feeling on the excise tax is that it's not going to be enough. That's No. 1."

Also, while Ikeda thinks the governor should not have the right to touch the department's line items in the budget, she said he must be able to control the bottom line.

"The governor has to come up with a balanced budget," Ikeda said. "We're not going to get around that."

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