Details of school finance reform take center stage

By Derrick DePledge
Advertiser Education Writer

State House and Senate lawmakers yesterday sought to clarify how much decision-making power would be given to school principals under a new student spending formula moving through the Legislature.

House Democrats said principals would have control over 75 percent of school operations money, while Senate Democrats would let the state Department of Education determine how much principals can effectively control.

Gov. Linda Lingle has said that principals should have 90 percent control over school operations spending, a recommendation that has been backed by the Hawai'i Business Roundtable and, this week, the Hawai'i Association of Realtors.

Although both the Lingle administration and the Democrats' figures are targets — with many details to be worked out later — the governor has increasingly described the issue as critical to education reform.

"There seems to be a perception that unless you put a percentage in the bill, it's fake reform," said Rep. Roy Takumi, D-36th (Pearl City, Palisades), chairman of the House Education Committee, who acknowledged that political considerations were involved in his decision.

Takumi said he is proposing the 75 percent figure as a starting point for discussion, with the understanding that negotiations will take place later this session in conference with the Senate.

Sen. Norman Sakamoto, D-15th (Waimalu, Airport, Salt Lake), the chairman of the Senate Education Committee, said educators should decide what the figure should be once the Legislature adopts the new formula, which would determine school financing based on student need rather than enrollment.

"I personally don't feel we need a number," Sakamoto said.

Edmonton, Alberta — the model that Lingle is using for reform — has given school principals 90 percent control over spending decisions, but school districts in the United States that have converted to a similar student spending formula have not reached that point.

Randy Roth, Lingle's education adviser, called Takumi's proposal "a mirage" that preserves power with the central DOE and the Legislature. "It allows business as usual," he said.

Senate Minority Leader Fred Hemmings, R-25th (Kailua, Waimanalo, Hawai'i Kai), said the Democrats' proposals leave the statewide school system intact. "But I think the governor's initiatives are starting to be recognized as genuine reform," he said.

Aside from control over money, lawmakers are also struggling to craft exactly how much autonomy and power principals should have over schools, how they would work within new school councils, and how they would be held accountable for school performance.

Under the Democrats' proposals, school councils — empowered versions of today's school/community-based management councils — would be required at every school and would have a voice over budget and curriculum.

But House and Senate lawmakers — who moved similar reform packages out of several committees yesterday — agreed to delete provisions that required that differences on the councils be settled by an outside mediator or the state Board of Education.

Senate lawmakers would give principals the last word at the schools over policy, but then allow the councils to appeal decisions up the chain of command at the DOE. Senate lawmakers would require two-thirds votes on the councils for budget issues and majority votes on other matters. The councils would also have a say in selecting and evaluating principals.

House lawmakers opted to let council members come up with a mediation process as part of individual council bylaws.

Each option opens up potential political — and practical — obstacles, lawmakers and educators say. If lawmakers give principals total control over school policy, some could argue that the new councils are purely advisory and little improvement on SCBMs. If lawmakers give principals and the councils equal power, some could argue that principals would be weakened.

Most successful principals already collaborate with teachers, parents and community leaders, both inside and outside of SCBM, and some want more information about whether the new councils might change those relationships.

Catherine Payne, the principal at Farrington High School, asked whether principals would get authority along with additional accountability. "There still has to be a bottom line," she said.

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