ISLAND VOICES
Grasping the DOE budget process

By Jim Shon

On June 23 Gov. Lingle sent a memo to the Department of Education that would have required the $1.6 billion DOE budget be cut by $218 million. After a flurry of meetings and memos, as of this writing, the governor is now asking for a cut of between $12 million and $20 million.

What is going on? How can our citizens begin to understand this process? A few quirks of the budget process include:

• The overall DOE budget has grown, but looking only at the total numbers doesn't tell us if the growth is in teacher salaries (which do not directly affect whether your child has a textbook, a computer or a music program) or more maintenance, or to pay for better programs.

• Accountants like to keep track of the sources of funds, i.e. general funds, special funds, federal funds, revolving funds, etc. (We get more federal funds for the No Child Left Behind programs.) This is nice, but not helpful in knowing how we actually spend the money.

• The state DOE budget is divided into eight major categories: (1) school-based budgeting, (2) comprehensive school support services, (3) instructional support, (4) state and district administration, (5) school support, (6) school community services, (7) physical plant operations and maintenance, and (8) libraries. This too is nice, but I defy anyone to look at these categories and tell me what they mean in terms of what money gets spent at a particular school, or just where all the staff are located.

• The DOE Web pages can tell you a little about how much might be spent at a school, but often this is just taking the large pot of money and dividing it by a formula. Very little is actually controlled or "spent" at the school level. In 2001-2, 'Aiea Intermediate School's per-pupil allocation was $3,245.94, while Konawaena's was $7,629.87.

Most of us ask common-sense questions: How much money does my child's school receive? Is it enough? Is it the same as that other school? How much is controlled by my school's principal? Are the teachers good? What programs are really good? How do you make a decision to cut this program versus that one?

Somehow, we need to adopt a budget system that can be understood by the average citizen, parent, policymaker, and by even our own state Department of Budget and Finance.

Jim Shon is associate director of the Hawai'i Educational Policy Center.