Bill evens field for charter schools

By Treena Shapiro
Advertiser Education Writer

Charter schools will get more money and be able to access it faster under a bill moving through the Legislature.

Key lawmakers agreed yesterday to pay for the 26 charter schools under the Board of Education's recommendations, and change the timetable for releasing the money to the schools.

The move came on the eve of a charter school rally organized as schools feared they would be shorted about $500 per student because the budget submitted to the governor last week left a $2.5 million deficit in the charter school budget.

S.B. 2425, passed by a House-Senate conference committee yesterday, makes up the deficit with money carried over from previous fiscal years.

"We're very, very pleased with the action of the legislators," said Dewey Kim, executive director of the Charter School Administrative Network.

Gov. Linda Lingle is still reviewing the budget, but her spokesman said that when the shortfall came up, Lingle had said the charter schools deserve more money, not less.

Several schools still plan to gather at 9 a.m. today in front of the state Capitol and at Neighbor Island locations to rally for funding equitable with other public schools.

Rep. Roy Takumi, chairman of the House education committee, said the Legislature would look at parity in money and facilities during the interim and next session.

"I think up until now we really haven't taken a holistic view of how to resolve this fairness issue with the charters," he said.

The bill also gives charter schools more money up front: 50 percent on July 20, rather than 40 percent on Aug. 1. Per-pupil funding will be based on Oct. 15 enrollment figures rather than the current Dec. 1 figures.

"Hopefully, this will put the charters on a much better financial footing than they have been," said Takumi, D-36th (Pearl City, Palisades).

Next session, he said, legislators will look into changing the law that led to the shortfall. The budget was based on the public schools' 2002 annual report available when the governor's budget proposal was being drafted, rather than the 2003 report that came out in January. As a result, it was based on fewer students and a smaller per-pupil allotment.

"We need to come back and correct the way the law is written to mean the January report," Takumi said.

Money problems have plagued many of the charter schools since they opened three or four years ago, but Kim noted that many startup issues have been resolved and "we're kind of grown-up now."

As schools overcome the initial issues, he said, "We're going to see charter schools really take off."

Reach Treena Shapiro at tshapiro@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525.8014.