Posted on: Friday, April 4, 2003

State can't shoulder reform costs alone

State House lawmakers have thrown a cold dose of reality on the dreamy rhetoric of the new federal No Child Left Behind education act.

Responding to the many new requirements and restrictions in the law, a House resolution suggests that Hawai'i simply opt out of the program unless Uncle Sam agrees to pay for its true costs.

It's likely that neither option will happen. But the resolution dramatizes the practical difficulties Hawai'i — like all states — faces under this new law.

The thrust of the federal law is clear: Set standards for educational achievement, test to see whether schools are hitting those standards and impose a variety of sanctions and assistance to those schools that do not make the mark.

Washington gets its foot in the door because it offers financial help to local school districts in a variety of ways, such as supplementary food supplies for free and reduced-cost lunch programs through "impact aid" to schools with federally connected (military family) students.

The total amount of federal support represents a fairly small percentage of the public school budget in Hawai'i, but it is not an amount the Department of Education can easily give up.

And while the No Child law operates through a federal program focused specifically on schools with a substantial percentage of students from poorer families, its reach extends to the entire system. If Hawai'i opted out, all federal support programs could be threatened.

So it is unlikely that Hawai'i would walk away from the program.

That leaves the alternative: getting Washington to pay a more realistic share of the costs. States across the country are complaining that the amount of new money contained in the No Child act (primarily to pay for extra testing) is woefully short of the amounts needed to pay for transfers, retraining of staff, after-school tutoring and other services required by the law.

It is a classic case of an unfunded mandate from Washington whose cost simply grows with the years.

Hawai'i's representatives in Congress should join with those from similarly affected states in demanding the Bush administration pick up the cost of this ambitious program.