Charter schools shift stirs debate
By Jennifer Hiller
Advertiser Education Writer
Lawmakers and Kamehameha Schools officials say they will lobby the governor next week to encourage him to sign a bill that would let nonprofits convert public schools into charter schools.
The Department of Education and members of the Board of Education this week raised serious questions about how those schools would be financed, but supporters of the bill say there is still time to work out the finances without jeopardizing the basic principle of the proposal.
Kamehameha Schools wants to take over some public schools with large numbers of Native Hawaiian students — a move that has been championed as a way to bring additional money and resources to campuses that face perennial problems with student test scores, dropouts and poverty.
"We're really interested in adding value to the public schools," said Hamilton McCubbin, CEO of Kamehameha Schools.
While the DOE has supported the measure, school officials have raised concerns about how those campuses would be governed and whether a separate bill would drain money from regular public schools and start-up charter schools.
The bill already before the governor would provide the framework to allow nonprofits such as Kamehameha Schools to operate conversion charter schools.
But language in another finance bill would give those conversion charter schools about twice as much money as other public school campuses receive, DOE officials said.
While Hawai'i spends about $6,400 per student each year, nearly half is absorbed by debt service, money that the DOE must give back to other state offices such as Budget and Finance and administration.
Public schools actually receive $3,286 per pupil. Charter schools, under a formula designed by the state auditor, receive $2,997 per pupil.
But under the finance bill, conversion charter schools would receive the full $6,400.
Board members say they are concerned that lawmakers will pass a law that will have to be fixed later. "Do members of the Legislature understand this?" board member Karen Knudsen said. "We're going down the same path we did with the original charter schools bill."
Charter schools have been a contentious issue since they were first approved in 1999.
Rep. Ken Ito, chairman of the House Education Committee, said the DOE needs to work on making its school financing more equitable in general. As it is now, several campuses already receive more money and teachers than others, he said.
"This bill is going to do so much for the Native Hawaiian kids throughout the state," Ito said. "We don't want to see this bill die. It's the first time we've had this public-private partnership."
Ito plans to fight misconceptions about the bill.
"I'm going to fight this to the end," he said. "It's something that's daring and challenging. They don't want to try anything new. They're not thinking outside of the box."
McCubbin said Kamehameha Schools hopes to expand its reach and help improve the public schools. Before Kamehameha could work with a school, its faculty, administrators and parents would have to vote in favor of becoming a conversion charter school. They would retain control over programs.
"Our job is not to wholesale our programs," McCubbin said. "It won't have those kinds of strings attached." Instead, schools would choose their own curriculum and would have the freedom and resources to do self-assessments that could lead to improvements, he said.
Charlene Hoe, director of the office of strategic planning at Kamehameha Schools, said each conversion campus likely would look different. "This isn't cookie cutter," she said.
The nonprofit foundation would add $1 to every $4 that the DOE spends on a campus. But lawmakers and Kamehameha officials have said they should not be expected to replace state money and be seen as a cash cow for the school system.
Conversion charter schools should receive the same amount of state money as a regular public school would, McCubbin said.
