Posted on: Friday, July 23, 2004
Law costing state extra $30 million
By Derrick DePledge
Advertiser Education Writer
The state Department of Education is spending an extra $30 million a year, or $175 a student, to meet the requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind law — a figure that will likely increase as more schools fail to meet escalating academic standards over the next few years.
The estimate from a Denver consulting firm is the first detailed account of how much Hawai'i is spending to comply with the law, which requires public schools to make annual progress toward having all students proficient in core subjects by 2014.
In Hawai'i, the DOE and Gov. Linda Lingle also have disagreed about whether the state is giving the department enough money to meet the law's goals.
The study by Augenblick, Palaich and Associates does not settle those questions, but outlines trends that suggest the DOE may buckle under the weight of increased federal expectations.
Schools have to clear increasingly higher academic hurdles, and those that fall behind have to offer students free tutoring and the option to transfer to other schools. These services, combined with outreach and intervention at schools with consistent problems, are driving up costs and consuming DOE staff time.
The study projects that more than 80 percent of Hawai'i schools will be under some form of penalty by the 2007-2008 school year. "Does the department have enough people to do this?" said John Augenblick, who conducted the study and briefed state lawmakers on his findings yesterday.
The DOE gave the Hawai'i Educational Policy Center $50,000 for the study, and the center selected Augenblick's firm to do the research.
Last week, as part of a national study on No Child Left Behind, the Education Commission of the States found Hawai'i on track to meet the law's key elements, such as developing academic standards and tools to measure annual progress. But Hawai'i and many other states are having a much harder time showing the academic gains expected under the law, and educators are putting pressure on Congress to re-evaluate what is considered school progress.
"We truly feel that the current model does not work for anybody," said Elaine Takenaka, the educational administrative services director at the DOE.
Augenblick said other states have found the higher academic expectations cost the schools about 15 percent to 40 percent more per student. He also said DOE workers interviewed for the study told of working longer hours because of the law, and asked whether their attention was being diverted from other necessary functions.
"If people are working 12 hours a day," Augenblick said, "you're going to burn them out."
Afterward, state Rep. Roy Takumi, D-36th (Pearl City, Palisades), chairman of the House Education Committee, called the study an eye-opener.
"The standard take for some people here is we're already spending too much money per child, and that the DOE is already too bureaucratic," Takumi said.
The study found that the DOE spent $24.6 million on one-time developmental costs under the law, including money for data management and technical assistance. Augenblick cautioned that his estimates reflected only what the DOE had spent because of No Child Left Behind, not money it would have spent anyway. Hawai'i was in the process of developing stronger academic and accountability standards as the law took effect.
State Sen. Norman Sakamoto, D-15th (Waimalu, airport, Salt Lake), chairman of the Senate Education Committee, and some people close to the DOE said the study might not reflect the total costs of complying with the law.
"I think the estimates are probably understated," said Breene Harimoto, chairman of the state Board of Education.
State Rep. Guy Ontai, R-37th (Mililani, Waipi'o), said spending an extra $30 million a year is manageable, given the potential for school improvement under the federal law. Ontai and other Republicans have said the DOE has enough money and resources, but is hampered by its single statewide structure.
"It's a very reasonable cost," Ontai said.
Reach Derrick DePledge at ddepledge@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8084.
State lawmakers across the nation have complained that the Bush administration did not provided enough money with the law, to which the administration has countered that many states are not spending all of the federal money available.
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By the Numbers
$30 million: added amount Hawai'i is spending each year under No Child Left Behind
$175: additional amount Hawai'i is spending on the law per student per year
$24.6 million: amount Hawai'i has spent in one-time developmental costs under the law
$94,000: estimated annual cost of helping schools in corrective action or facing restructuring under the law (25 schools were in corrective action last school year; 44 schools were preparing for restructing)
The demands of No Child Left Behind are just one challenge for the DOE, which is also moving toward a new student spending formula and new school community councils. Democrats in the Legislature and Gov. Lingle have differed over whether the $1.9 billion the state spends on education is adequate and whether the DOE is too top-heavy and bureaucratic. The study will likely add fuel to those arguments.
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Standards required by law
The federal law requires that public schools make annual progress toward having all students proficient in core subjects by 2014. In the 2002-2003 school year, 60 percent of Hawai'i schools fell short of their targets. Here are some of the law's major provisions:
• Eventually will require annual testing for students in third through eighth grades and 10th grade.
• Gives students the option of transferring out of schools that fail to meet goals for two years, and free tutoring at schools that fail to meet goals for three years.
• Requires highly qualified teachers in core subjects.
• Schools that consistently fall behind face sanctions that include replacement of school staff or state take-over.
