Officials consider seeking $50M to further aid high-needs students

The Department of Education is considering a proposal to seek from legislators next year a $50 million boost in per-pupil funds aimed at helping public schools narrow achievement gaps between high-needs students and their peers.

The state’s budget director is asking state departments to submit preliminary budget requests this month covering the next two fiscal years. DOE officials Tuesday presented some of the department’s big-ticket items to a Board of Education committee, highlighting proposals specifically tied to student achievement.

Board members have been increasingly critical of the department’s efforts to close the achievement gap between high-needs students and their non-high-needs peers. Three sets of students are categorized as high-needs: English-language learners, those receiving special-education services and those considered economically disadvantaged. The groups collectively represent 58 percent of all Hawaii public school students.

The $50 million increase to the per-pupil funding pot is the largest of the DOE’s budget requests and represents a significant increase over past years. Other requests include $9 million over two years to expand early-college course offerings to all high school students; $2.4 million for preschool teachers and educational assistants; $845,000 for full-time liaisons to support homeless students; and $2.3 million for the department’s Office of Hawaiian Education.

“These are not fully vetted. These are a list of needs,” Amy Kunz, senior assistant superintendent and chief financial officer, told members of the BOE’s Student Achievement Committee. “This is a new process for us in bringing this into a transparent way of doing our budget, open up the dialogue and start the conversations.”

Stephen Schatz, the DOE’s deputy superintendent, said the additional $50 million would go toward what’s known as the weighted student formula. The department received approximately $868 million for the current fiscal year to allocate through the weighted student formula, representing about 55 percent of the department’s operating budget.

Lawmakers created the funding method in 2004 as a means to ensure that funds go to schools with the greatest needs, acknowledging that some students cost more to educate. The formula assigns “weights” to various student characteristics such as economically disadvantaged, special education, English-language learners and transient. Principals have discretion over the funds, which are mainly used for payroll.

“We think that this is essentially the highest leveraging of dollars,” Schatz said of the per-pupil funding. “At the end of the day, we need to support our schools, and that means them having adequacy of resources.”

Schatz said the funds would benefit all schools, noting that the $50 million would amount to an extra $100,000 for Hana High and Elementary School in East Maui and an extra $700,000 for Waipahu High, based on current enrollments.

“It will make an impact whether it’s in Hana or at one of our big high schools on Oahu,” he said.

School leaders have complained that while the weighted student formula is equitable, in that it provides direct funding to schools serving high-needs populations, the level of funding is not adequate.

Some BOE members questioned whether $50 million would go far enough.

“Let’s try to get what we need versus what we can try to get,” said BOE member Kenneth Uemura. “I think we’ve kind of fallen back on that cycle of what can we get, and I think that’s the wrong way to approach it.”

Brian De Lima, vice chairman of the board, agreed, saying, “We need to stop settling for what we can get, and the only way we can do that is to put forth the vision and the needs.”

“To me, whether it’s $50 million or $100 million, the bottom line is we need to have a strategy on how to make this in the forefront of everybody’s mind — every voter, every citizen, every community, every school — and get the public engagement around this issue. I think the problem is schools have been conditioned to the thought that there isn’t enough money. And because they’ve been conditioned, they have not sought what is necessary in order to move student achievement in their particular schools.”

The budget instructions sent to state departments in an Aug. 26 memorandum say that while Gov. David Ige’s administration is “optimistic about Hawaii’s economy,” requests “must be sustainable and reasonable.” Education is notably listed as the first of five priority budget areas for the administration, followed by affordable housing, homelessness, clean energy and correctional facilities.