Superintendent lauds
reversing budget cutsSchools can now complete the
purchase of teaching materials
State Superintendent of Education Patricia Hamamoto praised an announcement that Gov. Linda Lingle is lifting spending cuts ordered in June to keep the state budget in balance.
The Department of Education was assigned $3 million first-quarter cuts in discretionary spending and told to anticipate cutting at least $12 million for the entire year unless revenues improved.
On Monday the Council on Revenues revised its earlier revenue forecast, projecting the state's tax income will grow 6.2 percent this year over the fiscal year that ended June 30.
Hamamoto said Tuesday she is grateful to the governor's support of education and restoring all of the funds in a lump sum so the Department of Education can implement the budget as written at the start of the fiscal year July 1.
"What that means is that athletics will be able to take care of all of their needs for the year as they determine. We will be able to restore the hours that we had reduced for the parent-community networking coordinators," she said.
"We will also be able to consummate our contracts for professional development for additional training. It means we can now get instructional materials that schools were forced to either not purchase at this time or think about not purchasing at all," Hamamoto said.
Hamamoto and Lingle disagreed in August on whether the assigned first-quarter budget cuts would affect the schools' athletics programs.
While Lingle said school sports programs were exempt from the cuts, Hamamoto said it would be difficult to continue their funding if the department's alternative was to cut services and personnel such as payroll clerks and computer system operators.
University of Hawaii officials, who had been looking for ways to cope with a $10 million restriction, also expressed relief.
They had been looking at cutting more than 200 classes throughout the system through the spring semester to meet their spending cut target.
"It's obviously great news for the university, and on the economic front it's great news for us all," said Paul Costello, UH vice president for external affairs.
Costello said the UH system's chancellors and other officials planned to meet to review the spending plan.
