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LeMahieu: Reforms
require call for
more money

By Crystal Kua
Star-Bulletin

Expect the state Department of Education to ask the state Legislature for a bigger budget for the next two fiscal years to back Superintendent Paul LeMahieu's educational reforms of standards, testing and accountability.

"The last (legislative) session was about ideas -- authority, accountability and so on -- and the legislation that empowers those ideas, enables those ideas," LeMahieu said. "The next session will be about initiatives and the resources that are necessary to pursue those ideas."

His comments came after Gov. Ben Cayetano signed into law five education bills approved by the Legislature this past session. The bills include three measures that were at the heart of LeMahieu's legislative agenda. They will:

Establish a framework of an accountability system that would include rewards, assistance and sanctions in meeting state standards. The details will be developed as part of a collaborative process involving parents, teachers, principals, labor unions, community members and others with a stake in public education.

Form an interagency working group that would identify and recommend for temporary suspension statutes, rules and policies that are restricting the school system in managing its own affairs.

Allow the Department of Eduction to have more authority over federal impact aid, Department of Defense money and other sources of outside funding.

The department intends to build an accountability system that is critically honest, humanly fair and educationally sound, LeMahieu said. To accomplish this, the department will be asking for more money to be used for instructional support surrounding the standards.

"Helping teachers get access to curriculum and to high-quality instructional materials -- textbooks that are current, up-to-date, high quality and that are aligned with the standards -- access to assessment resources so that teachers can keep track of whether the kids are learning the standards on an ongoing basis," LeMahieu said.

Financial backing will also be requested for continued professional development for teachers and administrators, which will be required under the accountability bill signed.

"The research is absolutely clear. If you're trying to make positive change happen, the best place to invest is in the people, in their knowledge and their skills and in their dispositions," LeMahieu said.

Teachers shouldn't have to pay for required training, he said. "The system can and should and must deliver enough professional development so that teachers don't have to reach into their pockets."

The department is preparing its budget for the next biennium and schools so far have put in $200 million worth of requests.

The final proposed budget won't be anywhere near that amount but it's a good indication of the kind of need being voiced by schools, LeMahieu said.

"We'll sift through it and say, 'What fits with the agenda?' That will help to pare it down a lot," LeMahieu said.

The fourth bill signed by Cayetano will appropriate $30 million to the public schools and $15 million to the University of Hawaii for repair and maintenance of facilities.

The last bill will establish the Running Start program, which would allow high-school juniors and seniors to attend college courses to attain both college credits and high school graduation credits.