Schools leader slams money plan

The superintendent wants to build a whole new funding system from scratch

Saying "it doesn't work," schools Superintendent Pat Hamamoto wants to scrap a new funding-equity plan that threatens to hit many schools with crippling budget cuts and has pitted schools against each other in the battle for money.

Hamamoto told a Board of Education committee yesterday that she wants to go back to the drawing board to study just how much it costs to successfully educate a child in Hawaii and then devise a more "sound" system based on the findings.

"We need to look at where we are and assess our journey to this point, and we need time to do that," she said.

"We have gotten so caught up in the money issue, but people forget that our school resources are there for student achievement."

A state committee convenes annually to draw up and revise the system, but under yesterday's proposal, Hamamoto's administration would seize control of the process.

In devising a new plan, the department would undertake a wide-ranging assessment of schools that have achieved success, how they did it and what it cost.

The resulting funding plan would be delivered to the committee and then the Board of Education for consideration next year.

The 2004 state Legislature ordered the department to implement a "weighted student formula" by the current school year.

It shifts more money to schools with greater numbers of the types of students considered more costly to educate, such as the economically disadvantaged and non-native English speakers.

The intent is to get the money where it most needed, but since no additional funds accompanied the mandate, that meant some schools lost while others gained.

The Board of Education approved the plan only reluctantly last year.

Hamamoto said neither the current version nor proposed revisions can be effective without the department first taking stock of what is working in schools, especially in light of recent reforms in the state school system and changes stemming from federal pressures on schools to perform better.

She said the department also would solicit greater input from schools themselves on a future funding plan.

In the meantime, the department plans to put the brakes on implementation of the current formula.

Schools that were to experience funding changes are feeling 10 percent of those changes this year, rising to 25 percent in the 2007-08 school year.

But Hamamoto proposed yesterday that the percentage rise to just 15 percent in 2007-08, intended as a relatively harmless increase that still shows the DOE moving forward in line with legislative intent.

Meanwhile, the DOE will request $20 million from the Legislature next year as a financial cushion for schools that might otherwise lose money.

As a result, just four out of the state's 255 public schools would see funding declines, and they would be slight, Hamamoto said.

Asked what would happen if the Legislature does not provide the money, Hamamoto said the department would fight hard for it but that other money could be found to help out schools.

Board members and school administrators reacted favorably to the proposal.

"I like what I'm hearing, especially that the department is planning to really analyze the situation first," said board member Karen Knudsen.

Principal Christina Small of Liholiho Elementary School, one of the schools facing funding cuts, said the proposal "validates" her opposition to the current formula.

"I like that we'll finally have some input," she said, adding that the increase to 15 percent implementation would be manageable in the meantime.

Hamamoto said she plans to assemble a special team to investigate successful approaches at a wide range of schools.

"We're looking for a formula with some anchors, some substance," she said.

The department would use its findings to determine how much it costs to adequately educate the average child. Only after that would additional weights be taken into account.

Independent experts hired to analyze the current formula have said the funding tug of war between schools shows that the school system is underfunded to begin with.

Hamamoto said that department's findings could be used to bolster that assertion and provide ammunition for additional funding requests.

She said the plan would also take into account the special circumstances of schools in rural areas, smaller schools and multitrack schools, which were among the most affected, rather than the current one-size-fits-all approach.

A separate outside study last year found the $2 billion school system is underfunded by nearly $300 million.

The Board of Education has set a mid-September deadline for deciding the issue.