Hawaii’s charter Hawaii's charter schools are at a "most critical juncture," and some will fail if issues of teacher benefits and funding are not fixed, a charter school principal said yesterday.
schools at ‘most
critical juncture’
A principal says a bill in the
Senate is essential to survivalBy Lisa Asato
lasato@starbulletin.com"Survival is an issue," said Donna Estomago, principal of Lanikai Elementary School.
She said key to that survival is Senate Bill 2512, which cuts to the heart of the issue: equality in personnel and funding.
Two Senate committees will vote on the bill today at 1:30 p.m. in Room 229 of the state Capitol, and the two committee chairmen said they want to move the bill forward.
At issue is a new Board of Education policy that no longer will grant charter school teachers probationary and tenure status benefits, and a state law that pegs per-pupil funding for charter schools to the previous year's expenditures, effectively decreasing funding for the schools.
"(The bill) gives us at least an equitable amount of monies with the rest of the state, and also our teachers would receive (state Department of Education) status," Estomago said. "They would not be discriminated against and would have probation and seniority."
Charter schools say they had expected to receive about $6,000 in per-pupil funding, but were told around August they would be receiving about half of that.
For Ka Umeke Kaeo New Century Public Charter School in Hilo, the decrease in anticipated funding meant letting three people go -- a teacher, a counselor and a clerk -- and ending its first year as a charter school in the red.
"Even after prudent budgeting and looking at how to come out in the black at the end of the school year, we still cannot," said Kaohu Martins, the school's director. "We can't send our teachers to workshops and training as other public teachers get to go because we don't have the money for those things."
Martins said the benefit policy puts charter schools at a disadvantage. "If we don't have this protection for our teachers ... we can lose our teachers to go back to public schools because they won't have any protection here, and it threatens the whole charter school movement.
"(It) can effectively shut down because they won't have certified teachers under the DOE system to teach their kids."
Department of Education officials and the Board of Education members could not be reached for comment. But when asked at Wednesday's hearing on the bill to explain the policy, board member Shannon Ajifu and DOE Deputy Superintendent Clayton Fujie said they could not comment because of ongoing lawsuits.
Charter school supporters say the issue comes down to equality.
"It's really simple," said Waianueha Dudoit, who teaches sixth grade at Ka Umeke Kaeo. "All we're asking is for equity, just to be treated like all DOE teachers. ... We have completed the practice exams; we've done teacher certification programs; six of nine of us have Master's of Education degrees. (Quality education is) not something we take lightly."
As it stands, the law and policy are "treating us like second-class citizens," said Dudoit.
Estomago, whose school faces the potential exodus of half of its 25 teachers because of the tenure and probation issue, added: "Some of them (charter schools) will just disappear. All those efforts will disappear. So much energy, so much bleeding has been done on this. There is a fear there will be failures, a lot of failures," she said. "After putting blood, sweat and tears in it, that would be a crime." She said the school is "exploring the idea" of filing a class-action lawsuit in federal court to address the discrimination. Senate Bill 2512 would allow teachers at charter schools to receive probationary and tenure status and acquire seniority as long as they meet DOE requirements. And it would peg the per-pupil funding to the projected per-pupil allocation for the current fiscal year.
Senate Education Chairman Norman Sakamoto (D, Moanalua-Salt Lake) said he will send a letter to the department and board asking them to clarify policy.
He said the bill to be voted on today would include amendments to address concerns about receiving funds in a timely manner, among other things.
State Department of Education
