Gov says
DOE cuts
not yet finalLingle insists that education
is still a priority, but all budget
demands must be met
Gov. Linda Lingle said that it is premature to talk about what final decisions she will make on her public school budget proposal to next year's Legislature.
Lingle reacted yesterday to Department of Education concerns that her administration had rejected nearly all of the Board of Education's request to boost education spending in the current budget for the next fiscal year by $51.2 million.
The state's budget director recommended only $1.5 million be added to the $1.3 billion approved for the second year of the two-year budget approved by lawmakers in late April.
The Democratic leadership of the state House issued what it called "a stinging rebuke" of the Republican governor's action.
"It's time for the Lingle administration to stop targeting our public schools," said Majority Leader Scott Sakai (D, Moiliili-McCully), calling the reduction in the board's request "unconscionable."
"The only people who get hurt in these budget battles are our children," he said.
Lingle said her administration is reviewing supplemental budget requests from all state departments in light of pending public employee contract talks and other state expenses, and after a give-and-take with each department will come up with a supplemental budget for the fiscal year that begins June 30.
"It's premature at this time to talk about any final decision," she said. "Even cuts that are made now, it's possible it could be more, depending on what happens with other departments and other responsibilities that we have."
As for department officials' concern that the administration ignored the request for $23.8 million to meet the federal mandates of the No Child Left Behind Act, Lingle said the department is missing the point.
"I think it's important to understand that No Child Left Behind says that we have to teach children to learn to read, and we have to do that now," she said. "The Department of Education has a $1.3 billion operating budget, and they need to achieve their goals within the funding that the state has available."
But Department of Education spokesman Greg Knudsen said the federal program's demands extend outside the classrooms.
"There's a whole lot of infrastructure support that is necessary in order to fulfill everything that is required by No Child Left Behind, and some of these improvements are long overdue," he said.
"We simply can't process and report to the public the kinds of reports that No Child Left Behind requires without a serious upgrade to the department's data management system and our assessment program," Knudsen said. "All of that needs to be boosted far more than the federal funds provided for."
The governor insisted that education remains her administration's top priority, but said she also has to weigh the demands for health, social, public safety and other state services and still stay within the state's revenues.
