Education budget cuts could jeopardize A-Plus
By Jennifer Hiller
Advertiser Education Writer
The Board of Education yesterday started cutting $3 million in spending from this year's state education budget, putting everything from state administration to the popular A-Plus afterschool program on the line.
A board committee approved recommendations from Superintendent Pat Hamamoto that would, for the most part, protect students in the classroom from losing programs while chipping away at school library services, teacher recruitment and district administration.
A-Plus, an after-school program on school campuses that provides a safe place for latchkey kids, will likely have to close before the end of the school year because of the cuts.
"We've reduced the ability to support the schools as they need help," Hamamoto said. "Everything that supports the school is going to be frozen in lockstep."
The committee's recommendations will go to the full board on Thursday for approval.
The Department of Education must trim $3 million from its budget to help make up a state budget shortfall. While board members and administrators are reluctant to make the cuts, they also acknowledge the school system has been spared the reductions required of other state departments.
The state faces a shortfall of at least $200 million. The DOE receives the largest general fund of all state agencies, with a budget of $1.3 billion for 2003. But the governor shielded more than $1.2 billion of the DOE's budget — including all school-level support, personnel costs, fringe benefits and costs associated with a federal consent decree to improve special education services — from taking cuts.
Most state departments must trim 5 percent from this fiscal year's budget, although Gov. Linda Lingle has said there will not be any layoffs because of the reduction.
School board members, however, said they want to look into whether state law or their own regulations would allow them to shift money from personnel positions into improving technology that could automate some services as a long-term solution to budget problems.
Many tasks at the DOE, especially those in the personnel office, are done by hand because the department does not have a modernized computer system. During collective bargaining with the teacher's union, for example, employees had to go through each personnel file and hand-count the thousands of teachers who have master's degrees in discussing the cost of pay raises.
"Why are we sitting here in 2003 with people doing things by hand?" said board member Laura Thielen.
Some board members also cautioned against cuts to the A-Plus system, operated by the DOE and private childcare providers. More than $864,000 would be trimmed from its $2.8 million nonpayroll budget under the department's recommendations.
"We know the impact that has on people," said Karen Knudsen, chairman of the committee on budget and fiscal accountability. "I think this is one we have to be careful on."
The DOE has come under pressure from parents and politicians in the past to avoid ending the program early or raising the fees families pay for A-Plus services.
Under the suggested budget, the personnel recruitment office would lose $11,898.
Other proposed cuts would include $23,732 from the school administrator training program, $47,148 from criminal history checks and $6,667 from the superintendent's office. Almost $35,503 would be cut from district administration and curriculum offices across the state.
Hamamoto said DOE officials who oversee the programs would be asked to select which services to eliminate this year.
Most of the suggested cuts would trim about 30 percent from the budget of affected offices.
"We may have to not have professional development," Hamamoto said. "We may have to not hold workshops. We may have to restrict travel to and from the Neighbor Islands."
