A number of legislators on the state House and Senate finance committees grilled Department of Education officials at a briefing this morning on some of items included in the district’s supplemental budget proposal, which includes $31.7 million in operating monies and $164 million for capital improvement projects.

The budget chats often opened up into larger discussions about DOE initiatives and decision-making. 

Sen. Laura Thielen expressed particular frustration over the predetermined textbooks and materials that have been selected for adoption at all public schools as part of the state’s transition into Common Core — a new set of teaching standards that’s being adopted across the country. She questioned DOE officials, including Superintendent Kathryn Matayoshi and Deputy Superintendent Ronn Nozoe, as to why the “central administration” is requiring all schools to adopt “one-size-fits-all” materials.

“How can one textbook resonate with the kids in a neighbor island rural school in homesteads and kids in a school on a Honolulu military base?” Thielen asked in a Facebook post that opened with this statement, in all caps: “THE CENTRAL DOE IS SOOOOO FRUSTRATING.”

Thielen, a former Board of Education member, said the statewide textbook and materials plan indicates the DOE isn’t listening to a nearly decade-old law, Act 51, that mandated the decentralization of Hawaii’s public schools.

“How do you reconcile that with the legislative intent of Act 51?” she asked at the briefing, noting that she doesn’t trust that the DOE will comply with its promise to let schools control their own individual budgets. The DOE is requesting another $14 million for per-student funds, money that it says will be distributed to individual schools to use as they see fit. 

But Nozoe said teachers from across the state were consulted in the selection of Common Core materials. He added that schools still have significant discretion, saying “the Common Core materials (are) the base, the floor — not the ceiling,” he said.

Meanwhile, Sen. David Ige, chair of the Committee on Ways and Means, asked officials how the department expects schools to pay for the increasing burdens associated with the new teacher evaluation system. He estimated that the workload of assessments and other evaluation components will increase by 500 percent in the next five years and suggested the increase isn’t being met by an equivalent addition to funding.

Ige said school administrators have been telling him the department is demanding too many things without getting the necessary resources.

DOE officials touted the value of the evaluation system in their answers but apparently failed to give the lawmakers a satisfactory response to their budget questions.

“We don’t need the soapbox response,” Rep. Sylvia Luke, finance committee chair, chimed in. “Just give answer the question.”

The department came out with a press release after the briefing describing the supplemental budget request as integral to the DOE’s long-term strategic plan and applauding public schools on their recent successes, including notable gains in reading and math performance on a national assessment and a decline in the number of students who need remediation.

“These are targeted requests based on measurable results,” said DOE Chief Financial Officer Amy Kunz in a statement.

Other requests include $25 million for air conditioning and $10 million for science classroom upgrades.

Explore the DOE’s budget proposal in full here. 

Photo: Money (Courtesy of RambergMediaImages via Flickr)

— Alia Wong