DOE budget plans far apart
By Treena Shapiro
Advertiser Education Writer
The state Board of Education and Gov. Linda Lingle are $81.8 million apart in their public school budget proposals for the next two years, with most of the difference in funding for special education and the education reform act the Legislature passed last session.
The governor's proposal increases the Department of Education's budget to more than $2 billion for each of the next two fiscal years. But schools superintendent Patricia Hamamoto told the legislative money committees yesterday that the department needs an additional $35.5 million in fiscal year 2006, and $46.3 million the year after.
The briefing before the Senate Ways and Means Committee and the House Finance Committee was just one step in a state budget process that will take several months to complete. The DOE typically asks for millions more than the governor proposes, with the differences ranging from $32.8 million to $52 million for the past three years.
Of particular interest to legislators was what the DOE says will be a potential loss of 163 special-education positions under the governor's budget. The state is still being monitored by the federal court under the Felix Consent Decree, which requires the DOE to provide adequate services to mentally and physically disabled students.
"My concern is that we try to maintain our level of service to our special-needs children, so I'm concerned about what is not being funded in the (governor's) suggested budget," said Sen. Russell Kokubun, D-2nd (S. Hilo, Puna, Ka'u).
But Hamamoto said she hopes the positions will be restored, since the cut was a result of the Department of Budget and Finance using an old formula for its calculations.
The Department of Budget and Finance and the attorney general are open, they are willing to talk and "they are genuinely looking to see how they can restore those teachers," she said.
The department also is requesting $23.7 million over two years to further implement the Reinventing Education Act of 2004. In her proposal, Lingle, who vetoed an early version of the education reform bill, did not specify any funding for the act.
Budget director Georgina Kawamura said money for the Reinventing Education Act was included in the governor's proposal as an increase to the DOE's base budget.
The DOE should be able to find the money within the governor's proposal to pay for the education reform initiatives, she said. "It boils down to managing the total amount of money you have available for the goals and objectives for the department," Kawamura said.
According to Hamamoto, an extra $23.7 million would allow the DOE to hire 145 third-grade teachers, provide science equipment for kindergarten through Grade 8, give high school teachers five professional development days, move high school principals from a 10-month to a 12-month schedule and provide supplementary money for schools adversely affected when the weighted student formula is adopted.
Without the extra money, other parts of the budget would be affected, Hamamoto said. "It would marginalize the efforts to date."
Ways and Means Chairman Sen. Brian Taniguchi, D-10th (Manoa, McCully), said the DOE has tried to address many of the elements of education reform, and its budget proposal would allow it to continue.
"I guess I'm a little disappointed that the governor didn't see fit to fund it as part of her program, so I guess we're going to have to try to have to fund those items that are reasonable," he said.
Reach Treena Shapiro at tshapiro@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8014.
