Posted on: Friday, December 10, 2004

Lingle's proposal cuts 163 special-ed teachers

By Timothy Hurley
Advertiser Maui Bureau

MAKAWAO, Maui — The state's public schools would lose 163 special-education teaching positions under an initial 2005-07 two-year budget proposed by Gov. Linda Lingle, state Department of Education officials said last night.

State schools superintendent Patricia Hamamoto said the governor's proposal would severely impact the system's ability to serve Hawai'i's "special needs" students and place the state at risk of violating the Felix consent decree, the 1994 court order that requires the department to provide adequate services to mentally and physically disabled students.

Hamamoto is expected to meet today with state budget director Georgina Kawamura and state Attorney General Mark Bennett to discuss this issue and other cuts to the DOE's budget request.

Hamamoto said Lingle's budget not only slashes 163 existing special-education teaching positions, but also 76 similar positions that were added to the DOE budget to meet court-ordered Felix benchmarks.

In total, the school system would face a 239-teacher shortfall, she said.

DOE budget director Ed Kuyama said the administration apparently made its cuts based on criteria used before the Felix decree.

"What's surprising is that they reached their conclusion without even talking to us," he said. "There's a huge disparity, and it doesn't make sense."

Officials with the Lingle administration could not be reached for comment last night.

There are 2,041 special education teachers working in the state's public schools. Hamamoto said the system will need 2,117 special education teachers next year just to meet Felix mandates.

According to Lingle's proposed budget, the state would save more than $5.5 million by cutting the 163 special education teachers.

Kuyama said the governor's budget proposes spending that money, plus another $3 million realized by cutting 88 regular education teaching positions, on school repair and maintenance.

Kuyama said the cuts in regular teaching positions are in dispute as well. But because of ongoing declining enrollment, the differences between the DOE's estimates and the governor's aren't huge — certainly not as huge as the special education disparity.

Officials cautioned that it's relatively early in the budget process, and there is some hope that the special education funding can be restored to avoid the Felix shortfalls.

Board member Mary Cochran urged Hamamoto to be aggressive in her meeting with the governor's staff.

"You take the tiger by the tail," Cochran said. "You tell her to justify those cuts."

Board member Lei Ahu Isa, a former Democratic state legislator, said that if the special education positions are not restored, the board should be prepared to lobby the Legislature.

"This isn't set in stone," she said.

The mother of disabled student Jennifer Felix filed a lawsuit in federal court in 1993 claiming that the state had failed to comply with federal law, and the case grew into a class-action lawsuit on behalf of all learning-disabled children in Hawai'i.

Earlier this year, U.S. District Judge David Ezra approved an agreement that in June 2005 the court would end oversight of the state's efforts to comply with federal law requiring "free and appropriate public education" for disabled and "special needs" students.

Because of the Felix decree, special education teachers are annually among the most sought-after employees hired by the DOE.

Of the 580 new elementary school teachers hired in the 2002-03 school year, for example, 134 were assigned to teach students with learning disabilities, the largest category of special education students. In middle and high schools, 147 of the 783 new hires were assigned to students with learning disabilities.

Reach Timothy Hurley at thurley@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 244-4880.