State DOE won’t A reprieve from the governor's office saved the Department of Education yesterday from having to eliminate 37 staff positions.
be hit with gov’s
budget cuts
The news means 37 positions
will not need to be eliminatedBy Treena Shapiro
tshapiro@starbulletin.comThe DOE was planning to restrict about $15 million of its budget to prepare for the possibility that Gov. Ben Cayetano would call for a 2 percent cut from all state departments due to a shortfall in tax revenues.
However, Schools Superintendent Pat Hamamoto told the Board of Education last night that the governor's office said yesterday that there was no current plan for a cut.
For most DOE programs, the cut would have meant reduced supplies and equipment, but some would have lost funding for personnel.
Of the 37.5 positions that would have been eliminated, 20.5 were within the gifted and talented program, which has 100.5 positions to provide services to all 267 public schools.
"We're very pleased with the news today," said board Vice Chairwoman Karen Knudsen.
However, the DOE still has to reduce appropriations for many programs to pay for programs that were not sufficiently funded during the last legislative session. The department has to come up with $32 million for charter schools, the Felix response plan, bus transportation and raises for teachers who completed professional development programs.
The board voted last night to address the shortfall by using $13 million in impact aid, $4.5 million in carryover funds from the last fiscal year and $14.5 million by restricting appropriations to all other departments. The board also received an update on some of the longer-term challenges that the department faces. Almost 70 percent of school administrators and 40 percent of teachers in public schools are at or nearing retirement age, said Thomas Gans, evaluation specialist for the Department of Education, who delivered the superintendent's annual report on school performance and improvement. Less than 1 percent of the principals are under age 40, he said.
"We don't have enough young principals, and we have too many principals that we're losing," Gans said.
As a result, Hawaii faces a teacher and administrator shortage over the next decade. Teachers and principals who reach age 55 with more than 30 years' experience can retire with full benefits, he said.
Board member Meyer Ueoka said the board needs to work with state lawmakers to try to retain these educators.
"If the principals or the teachers are going to retire at 55, they are too young," he said. "How can we attract these people to stay in the business?"
The superintendent's report also said that more than half of the state's 180,475 public school students are at a disadvantage because of low income, limited English proficiency and disabilities.
The increasing number of disadvantaged students makes teaching more challenging and expensive, Gans told the board.
"The average difference is about $6,000 per pupil," Gans said. It costs about $6,000 a year to educate a student with no disadvantages, while it costs about $12,000 to educate a disadvantaged student, he said.
About 31.8 percent of students receive free or reduced-price lunches, 5.1 percent have disabilities, 2.3 percent have limited English ability and 11.4 percent have multiple disadvantages, the report said.
The report also stated that Hawaii continues to rank last in the nation for the percentage of state and local tax revenues allocated to public schools. Hawaii's schools receive about 14.8 percent of the revenues, while the national average is 24.2 percent, according to the report.
State of Hawaii
