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Board of Education
focuses on
school spending

The board members want
to make sure money spent
leads to improved learning

By Crystal Kua
Star-Bulletin

The state Board of Education wants to make sure that money spent by schools is leading to improved learning.

So when schools say they have no money and then find thousands of dollars for televisions, safety programs and soap instead of books, the board questions how these kinds of purchases are connected to student achievement.

"We want results," said board member Karen Knudsen, chairwoman of the Budget and Fiscal Accountability Committee.

With accountability and funding moving from policy to the classrooms, the board wants to see that money being poured into school programs is working.

"The frustration of the board is that we're not seeing academic achievement rising in the schools," Knudsen said. "I think if we were seeing SAT scores soaring and academic achievement, then we wouldn't really be too concerned about a lot of things."

The budget committee agenda for yesterday included several items with a common theme -- getting the most out of each dollar to improve student achievement. The board also wants the department to devise a way to report expenditures and to measure how well programs work.

"We have hundreds of programs in the department ... that have been funded and supported for years and yet we have no report in terms of their effectiveness, their outcome," Knudsen said. As an example, the start of a new safety program by the Department of Education and the Police Department came without the board's financial blessing, Knudsen said.

A $1 million contract was awarded to the security company owned by Keith Kaneshiro, former city prosecutor and state public safety director. Participating schools had to come up with $5,000 to $8,000.

Knudsen said the board was unaware that the funds would be used to kick off that program. "We say we have no money, we're always facing shortfalls so the board was concerned when all of a sudden there was money to launch this new program."As lawmakers direct more money to schools instead of through the district and state offices, oversight is increasingly important, committee members said.