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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Friday, January 14, 2005

School board tries to put a value on each student

 •  Chart: What the formula means to schools

By Treena Shapiro
Advertiser Education Writer

A proposed student-weighted formula would give public schools extra money for their English-as-a-second-language learners and economically disadvantaged students, and vastly increase principals' discretion over their budgets.

The 42-member Committee on Weights yesterday gave its recommendation to an ad hoc Board of Education committee that is tasked with overseeing implementation of Act 51, the education reform law passed last year.

Part of the reform plan calls for developing a school budgeting formula that links spending to students with the greatest need and gives schools more of its money in lump sums, rather than allocating money for specific categories, such as personnel and programs. The Board of Education said it will discuss the issue several more times before it adopts a formula later this year.

The weighting formula would give more money to schools with high populations of ESL students or those on free or reduced-price lunch — a common measure of poverty — while potentially taking away money from schools with fewer such students. These schools are typically in more affluent areas.

Ed Koyama, the DOE's budget director, told the committee that under the proposal, $771 million, or 48 percent of the DOE's budget, would be given to principals to spend, with an additional 24 percent to use for "categorical" programs, such as athletics and vocational eduction.

"Seventy-two percent of the entire department's budget will be spent by principals," he said.

Act 51 stipulates that principals will control 70 percent of their schools' budgets, compared to the 15 percent they control now.

The Committee on Weights, made up of principals, teachers, parents and community members, met six times since being appointed last August, and told the board yesterday it would be willing to reconvene to fine-tune the recommendation.

The DOE already has a weighting formula for special-education students, so the committee kept that and assigned a .21 weight to ESL students and .10 to the economically disadvantaged. That would mean schools would get a base allotment for every student, plus an extra 21 percent per ESL student and an extra 10 percent for the economically disadvantaged.

Bruce Coppa, who is heading the weights committee, said there was no doubt among members that these groups should receive extra money. He said the committee also identified three other categories as needing weights — transition/mobility, at-risk, and gifted and talented — but held back on assigning them, because of a lack of reliable methods for counting these students.

Another recommendation took into account the potential of small schools losing too much money under a per-pupil allotment, so the committee recommended giving these schools subsidies to make up the difference.

Reach Treena Shapiro at tshapiro@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8014.

• • •

What the formula means to schools

The weighted student formula recommended to the state Board of Education yesterday assigned a .21 weight to English-as-a- second-language learners and a .10 weight for economically disadvantaged students. Both were incorporated in two models — one of which gave a higher weight to elementary school students, the other a higher weight to high school students. The committee offered both since some members argued it costs more to teach high school students because of things like higher textbook prices, while others said spending more money in the early grades would give all students a better academic foundation. Here's how some school budgets would change under these models:

School
Current funding*
Elem. school weighted*
High school weighted*
Farrington
High School
$9.59
$10.0
$11.6

Kalani
High School
$4.8
$4.2
$4.9

Ma'ili
Elementary
$3.2
$3.8
$3.5

'Aikahi
Elementary
$2.5
$2.6
$2.4

Moanalua
Middle School
$3.5
$3.38
$3.37

Wheeler
Middle School
$2.9
$2.46
$2.44

* All figures in millions of dollars

Source: DOE