Public schools
cuts may hit
$20 million
A+ fees could go up and
part-time teachers may face
layoffs under a new budget plan
Some part-time teachers would be laid off, parents could face higher A+ fees and fewer public schools than expected would get safety managers under proposed cuts in state spending this year.
State Budget Director Georgina Kawamura told the Department of Education this week to prepare to operate with $12 million to $20 million less than planned for the fiscal year that just started.
"We're trying our best, but there's only so much money out there," she said after meeting with the Board of Education's Budget Committee on Wednesday.
Gov. Linda Lingle has shielded the bulk of the school system's $1.4 billion budget from the knife, leaving special education and charter school allocations intact, along with most school-level funding. She has also directed that no civil service employees be laid off, but part-time teachers and casual hires are not protected.
The BOE is expected to vote at its meeting Thursday on how to divide $3 million in cuts that would cover the first quarter of this fiscal year.
Figures reviewed by the budget committee show reductions in supplies, equipment and administration, as well as some part-time teachers and staff, to reach the $12 million cut in annual expenditures.
"Those people who are casual hires, who support instruction in the classroom, will be reduced or in some cases eliminated," said Schools Superintendent Patricia Hamamoto. "It's not a bright scenario. The reduction in materials will also stress the schools."
Close to $7.5 million would be pared from what are known as "categorical programs," ranging from vocational technology and Hawaiian studies to alternative learning centers, which handle students who do not function properly in regular schools.
"Alternative learning centers have students, faculty and staff," said board member Garrett Toguchi. "They're basically schools. They should not be touched."
Included in that $7.5 million reduction is $2 million that was budgeted to extend the safety manager program to 70 schools statewide from 23 Oahu secondary schools. That money was singled out because it was an expansion of an existing program, in a time of overall budgetary contraction.
The revised budget also slices nearly $2 million from administrative costs across the school system, $1 million in instructional support and $1.2 million from the A+ program.
The DOE is recommending that A+ fees be raised to cover the full cost of after-school care for parents who can afford it. That could push the fee up to roughly $75 from the current $55 a month. The increase would not apply to students who qualify for free and reduced-price lunches.
"It doesn't make sense for the state to continue to subsidize a child-care service among parents who can afford to pay," said department spokesman Greg Knudsen. "The full amount would still be a bargain."
Kawamura said she was leaning toward $20 million in cuts to the public school system, rather than $12 million over the course of this year. But the amount will depend on revenues, and the picture could change when the Council on Revenues meets again in September.
"I can't plan anything past September. That's why we're being really cautious," she said.