Posted on: Friday, July 1, 2005
Students are focus of funding formula
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By Johnny Brannon
Advertiser Education Writer
The weighted student formula awaiting approval from the Board of Education is meant to distribute money among schools more equitably, and to force change at those that lose money, said Randy Moore, the Department of Education program manager who has overseen the formula's development.
Schools that lose money may have to lose part of their work force, consolidate some remaining positions and make other adjustments, he said. But most of the impact will likely be among noninstructional staff, such as office workers, custodians, counselors and librarians, according to Moore.
"Most of what will need to change is the way schools are organized," he said.
The current system of dividing money among schools is a position-driven formula based largely on the size of student populations, but subject to other influences, such as "squeaky-wheel syndrome" — aggressive administrators who seek more funding for their schools, Moore said.
"Theoretically, it's focused on the students, because the formula is typically enrollment-driven, and the allocation of the non-formula positions go by the perception of need," he said. "But the result is that we have these imbalances. ... And the extra resources are, or are not, used effectively."
Some schools that are very close to each other now run on budgets that provide vastly different amounts of money for each student, he noted.
Waialua High and Intermediate, for example, receives about $5,442 per student. But nearby Kahuku High and Intermediate gets about $3,925 per student.
Under the new formula, Waialua would receive $4,426 per student, and Kahuku would get $4,122. That means an annual total loss of $716,759 for Waialua, and a gain of $365,657 for Kahuku. Waialua's student enrollment for the past school year was 705, while Kahuku's was 1,853.
"The bottom-line philosophical underpinning of weighted student formula is that schools are financed equitably, based on student needs," Moore said. "It's students that are being funded, and not schools that are being funded."
Reach Johnny Brannon at jbrannon@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8084.
"Money doesn't necessarily make the difference," Moore said. "It's how the money is used. Clearly, a school that is receiving less money, prospectively, under weighted student formula needs to do whatever they're doing differently. If they say, 'We can't do it with fewer resources,' they definitely can't do it the same way with fewer resources. So they need to look and see how other schools with less resources have been doing it."
Randy Moore
