Posted on: Friday, January 17, 2003

DOE asks legislators for budget increases

By Jennifer Hiller
Advertiser Education Writer

With looming budget restrictions and the governor's interest in restructuring the school system, state schools superintendent Pat Hamamoto appealed to lawmakers yesterday for stability and financial security.

The Department of Education is asking for an increase of $32.8 million in the 2004 budget and $28.1 million in 2005 over this year's $1.3 billion base.

In the past year, the department has gone through internal organizational changes, has managed to get all of its schools into full or provisional compliance with the federal Felix consent decree that ordered the improvement of special education services, and has been trying to keep pace with the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act, the new federal education law.

Now, Hamamoto said the school system needs a chance to improve community involvement in the schools and keep working to improve the programs it has started.

"In these disturbing and unsettled times, the school system needs a measure of stability," Hamamoto said. "We need to fully focus on the tasks at hand without fear of having our efforts overturned by drastic reorganization and severe budget variations."

In the first of what is sure to be many presentations before House and Senate committees to appeal for resources, Hamamoto and several education administrators gave a budget overview to the House Committee on Education.

But educators are asking for more money at a time when Gov. Linda Lingle plans to trim the state budget. Already, Lingle has asked the DOE to cut $3 million from the current year's budget to help make up a state shortfall.

And while the Council on Revenues has said the state economy could grow by about 6 percent, it has cautioned that a major event — such as war with Iraq — could throw the economy out of whack.

Lingle also campaigned on the idea of breaking the public-school system into locally elected school boards, a proposal that school officials oppose, although they did not address it directly yesterday.

Instead, Hamamoto said the department will need additional money for health and safety issues, school buses, collective bargaining, charter schools and compliance with No Child Left Behind.

In addition to more stringent hiring requirements for teachers' aides under the new federal law, the department will need computer upgrades to be able to handle the increased reporting obligations. The district now will track student standardized test scores by race, poverty level, special education, limited English skills and general population.

"The amount of data we're going to have to deal with in No Child Left Behind is going to be tremendous," said Kathy Kawaguchi, assistant superintendent of curriculum, instruction and student support.

For the fiscal year that ends in June, the department will have to ask for $15 million in emergency money for autism services. The responsibility for autism services switched from the Department of Health to the Department of Education this year, but the program came with a budget shortfall and an increasing number of students.

Despite the $60.9 million request, Hamamoto said that $150 million in requests came in from the schools and the department identified $109 million in needs.

"We believe we're the most important thing there is," Hamamoto said.

Board of Education member Karen Knudsen said she realizes the economy is tight and that this will be an especially difficult session for lawmakers, but said the DOE is more efficient now in allocating resources.

Schools also have more flexibility to decide their own spending, she said.

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