[ OUR OPINION ]
No more budget cuts
for public education
IF LIP service could pay for public education, Hawaii's schools would be flush with motivated teachers, new computers, current textbooks, comfortable furnishings in bright, clean classrooms, well-supplied restrooms and a rich curriculum offering art, physical education and music. But it doesn't.
THE ISSUE The Department of Education faces another round of funding decreases.
State revenues decreases have compelled annual cuts in the Department of Education's budget and this year is no exception. What appears different this go-round is that reducing funds will shave the bone of public schools at the same time that demands in education are expanding. Legislators and the Lingle administration, all of whom have repeatedly declared support for education, must spare the rod of funding reductions for Hawaii's students.
The state's fiscal problems have prompted Governor Lingle to impose a $3 million reduction in the schools' current budget and another $11 million through the next two fiscal years. As Rep. Colleen Meyer pointed out during a budget hearing this week, the cuts are less than 1 percent of the department's $1.3 billion allocation. However, she and other legislators should acknowledge the cutbacks come on top of years of paring that have had damaging effects on the system.
Although education officials are prone to presenting worst-case scenarios when asked to cut spending, even taken with a grain of salt, there is ample evidence of the acute needs of the schools.
When schools no longer can provide basic tools such as textbooks and workbooks, when teachers like Nancy MacGregor are forced to "beg and borrow" to get enough chairs for all the children in her Waimea Elementary class and when children have to do without toilet paper and paper towels if they don't bring their own, budget cuts are running too deep.
Lingle, who refuses to dip into the state's $200 million hurricane fund and to raise taxes to balance the budget, has prudently directed her staff to cull the fat from all departments instead. However, the process is arduous and confusing and picking apart the specifics of myriad programs and agencies will take time, and money is needed now.
The governor has been open to creative solutions -- such as seeking private businesses to pay part of the salary of her proposed tourism czar -- and could extend similar ideas to school funding. Lawmakers should team with her to search for answers.
Hawaii's people have made it abundantly clear that improving public education is a priority. The federal government's mandate in the No Child Left Behind Act demands the same. Among state leaders, there has been no shortage of verbal support for public schools. The consensus is there. The task is to meet the objective and to find the money to properly fund public schools. Few, if any, government functions should eclipse this need.
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