Lawmakers split on school reform

By Derrick DePledge
Advertiser Education Writer

State lawmakers overwhelmingly favor a new student spending formula for Hawai'i's public schools that could give principals more discretion over money and more power to make decisions about curriculum, an Advertiser survey has found.

But most lawmakers remain undecided on Gov. Linda Lingle's proposal to ask voters in November to split the state Department of Education into seven school districts with locally elected boards, and many Democrats are leaving their options open to either negotiate with the governor or build support for their own alternative.

Education reform is expected to be a defining issue this session, and the results could influence state House and Senate elections later this year and test the Republican governor's adeptness at dealing with a Democrat-controlled Legislature.

Beyond politics, the debate involves fundamental issues of school governance and spending that could shape public education and give parents more information and possibly more choices about which schools their children attend.

Lingle's education reform plans were rejected last year in her first experience with the Legislature, but now that she has made education her top priority and asked the public to support her, the stakes are much higher.

An Advertiser survey found near unanimous support among lawmakers for a new student spending formula, an idea embraced by Lingle and, more cautiously, by the DOE and principals and teachers. No lawmaker opposed moving to a new formula, although 19 either did not take a position or did not participate in the survey.

Answers to the local school board question, like the debate, were more divided along party lines. House and Senate Republicans, and a few Democrats, favor a ballot question on local school boards, and while several Democrats in the House and Senate said they were opposed, most Democrats did not commit.

Two-thirds votes in both the House and Senate are required to put a constitutional amendment on school boards on the ballot, so Lingle will start the session well behind. The Advertiser did not ask lawmakers about any other school governance proposals, since Democrats have yet to rally behind a single plan, but some Democrats want to expand the state Board of Education from 13 to 17 voting members, each representing three House districts.

The Lingle administration will argue that both questions should be put before voters to decide.

Sen. Norman Sakamoto, D-15th (Waimalu, Airport, Salt Lake), chairman of the Senate Education Committee, said lawmakers must carefully consider the implications of reform instead of simply asking voters to choose.

"I think people want change," Sakamoto said. "But that doesn't mean any change will do. It's very problematic to me to think we could just do local school boards and figure out the details later.

"Our job is to look at the merits."

Sen. Bob Hogue, R-24th (Kailua, Kane'ohe), the GOP's minority floor leader, admits it will be a tough sell. A lot will depend, he said, on whether Citizens Achieving Reform in Education, the governor's advisory committee, has been successful at building public support for Lingle's plans and can now turn that support into action.

"We're going to try to convince individual legislators through public opinion," said Hogue, who also serves on the Senate Education Committee. "It's our belief that public opinion is solidly behind education reform.

"But there are a lot of people who need to be convinced."

Lawmakers will also likely consider several other education issues this session, including whether to increase state spending on schools next fiscal year and how much to invest on cutting through a backlog of school repair and maintenance projects. Lawmakers may also determine whether to give the DOE more independence by untangling some functions now handled by other state departments.

But those items will likely be overshadowed by the debate over local school boards, which Lingle insists are necessary to bring school decisions closer to the people and to provide oversight of school principals as they transition to a new spending formula.

Unions representing principals and teachers and the DOE are opposed to local school boards, so Lingle, like last year, is left to make her case without the endorsement of public-school leaders.

Laura H. Thielen, a BOE member who also serves on CARE, said local school boards have been a bipartisan issue in the past, and noted that Democrats have voted for a constitutional amendment on local boards in previous sessions, although the proposals eventually crumbled.

U.S. Rep. Ed Case, D-Hawai'i, was an advocate of local boards when he was in the Legislature and has offered to help Lingle on reform. Thielen said other Democrats should explain why they appear to have changed their minds.

"This is not a Republican package," Thielen said. "It's not partisan. It is a political issue because you're deciding who is going to control what will soon be $2 billion a year in state money."

Until it's resolved, the local school board question may also obscure the potentially huge logistical challenges in moving to a new student spending formula, a process that many principals and teachers are concerned might be overlooked in the rush to satisfy the political thirst for reform.

CARE has said that a new formula could be in place by the 2005-2006 school year, but others familiar with the process believe it could take longer unless the state starts moving immediately. The formula would set student spending based on need, rather than school enrollment, and the money would follow the student from school to school. At first, the formula would likely be adjusted so no school gains or loses too much money, but, eventually, the goal is to make school money more equitable, so there likely would be schools that would have to give up money to other schools.

While such a formula would be more transparent than existing school spending patterns, it could also cause resentment and even fights as schools compete for students and money. It could also

expose issues of social class and fairness, since the perception is that certain schools get more resources than others even though the statewide school system is designed for equality.

Principals and other school administrators would also have to be trained on how to oversee a greater share of school money, and computer technology would have to be available to accurately distribute and monitor the money sent to schools under the formula.

"It's a massive, massive venture," said Lionel Aono, a former DOE budget director who studied such a formula in 1994. "I think it's going to take about five years. You're going to need training. You're going to need accountability."

Reach Derrick DePledge at 525-8084 or ddepledge@honoluluadvertiser.com.