Changes likely as charter school bill makes its way through Legislature

The proposed overhaul of Hawaii’s charter school law received its first public hearing at the Legislature Wednesday and ran into strong opposition from the teachers’ union but received conditional support from many charter schools.

Senate Education Chairwoman Jill Tokuda, who headed the task force that produced Senate Bill 2115, said she expects revisions as it moves through the Legislature.

"There will no doubt be many, many changes," Tokuda said during the committee hearing. "We need to amend this bill so that it’s in the best shape possible."

The bill, patterned largely on model national legislation, would put charter schools on performance contracts and strengthen monitoring of the charter system. Those provisions received support at the hearing.

But other sections of the bill, including substantial changes to charter school governance, proved more controversial. For example, the authorizer of charter schools as well as the local boards that govern each school would be chosen based on qualifications such as fiscal knowledge, rather than as representatives of constituency groups such as teachers and community members.

"Eliminating teachers as required representatives on a local school board shuts out the voice of teachers," said Al Nagasako, executive director of the Hawaii State Teachers Association, adding that the same is true for the proposed new public charter school commission. "How can a policy body not include the practitioners? Teachers know firsthand what is important for educating our children."

Another big bone of contention was the proposal to phase out the Charter School Administrative Office. The bill would transfer some of its functions to charter campuses, some to the Department of Education and some to the charter school authorizers.

"Our greatest concern is the elimination of the only support agency for charters," said Don Young, director of the Hawaii Education Policy Center. "Over the years, all the charters have benefited by this office, in many ways that are invisible. Smaller charters will not have the ability, expertise or funds to stand alone without the kinds of administrative expertise and support we take for granted within the Hawaii Department of Education."

The Hawaii Public Charter Schools Network, a nonprofit advocacy group, generally favored the legislation, but identified that issue as one of its top concerns. Its executive director, Lynn Finnegan, said its survey of state charter schools found that just 13.7 percent of respondents opposed the bill, while the rest supported it, most of them with reservations.

"Overall we feel pretty optimistic that it is learning from national lessons," she said. "Charter schools are generally in support of these sweeping changes and the reservations are mostly due to the support that is needed for implementation of, and transitioning to, make these changes."

She added that some charter leaders wondered "whether or not this new governance structure would further peel away at charter school autonomy."

Another concern raised at the hearing was the desire to "prevent another Laupahoehoe" by clarifying that schools should convert to charter status only with the active support and collaboration of their teachers and staff. The Board of Education recently overruled the Charter School Review Panel and converted Laupahoehoe High and Elementary School into a charter school.

"I’m very surprised at the decision that was made to basically force parents, students and teachers into a charter school that they were not ready to accept," said Sen. Michelle Kidani, (D, Mililani-Waipio), vice chair of education.

The Hawaii Government Employees Association said the legislation should also add a process to allow employees to switch to another school when a regular public school becomes a charter.

Tokuda put off a decision until Monday, as did her counterpart in the House, Education Chairman Roy Takumi, whose committee heard testimony on a companion bill, HB2010, but did not discuss it. Tokuda noted that a separate bill will cover implementation.

"If we’re going to make substantial changes to our charter school laws, it’s important to make sure that we have the resources and the time to actually do it right," she said.