Schools and UH get extra $250 million

Calling education one of his highest priorities, Gov. David Ige has included an extra $250 million for operations and capital projects at Hawaii public schools and the University of Hawaii in his proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year.

The support doesn’t include much in the way of new initiatives. Most of the funding is slated to help plug shortfalls and make needed repairs to aging facilities.

Ige’s education budget includes an increase in per-pupil funding at public schools, support for rising utility and school bus costs, air conditioning and preschool subsidies. It also includes funding for the financially struggling UH Cancer Center and the university’s growing repair and maintenance backlog.

The governor Monday released his supplemental budget, which he said aims to make “targeted changes” to the two-year budget legislators approved in May. Overall, Ige included roughly two-thirds of the additional funding that the Department of Education and UH system had requested.

At a news conference Monday, Ige said education “remains one of my highest priorities, and on which I know a lot more needs to be done.”

The DOE — which received $1.53 billion in general funds for operations this year — had sought about $70 million in budget add-ons for next year. Hawaii is the 10th-largest school district in the nation, with more than 180,400 students enrolled at 256 schools.

Ige’s budget adds $45.7 million for operations, including the DOE’s full request for $26.5 million in per-pupil funds that are allocated through what’s known as the weighted student formula. The increase represents a 2 percent boost to the weighted student formula pot.

The formula assigns “weights” to students based on their needs so that schools with higher enrollments of economically disadvantaged, special- education or other special-needs students will get more of the money along with schools with higher populations of English-language learners and transient students. Principals have discretion over the funds, which are mainly used for payroll.

Directing more funding to the school level to “empower” school leaders has been one of the governor’s stated goals.

Ige’s budget does not include $12.8 million the Board of Education requested for digital devices and teacher training to expand the department’s so-called 1-to-1 laptops program, and also doesn’t include about $1.8 million for sabbaticals, bonuses and license renewal fees for tenured teachers, all agreed to in the teachers union contract.

The governor did include $9 million to cover a shortfall for increasing utility costs at schools (the department asked for $10.8 million) and $6.9 million to cover another shortfall in student bus transportation costs.

“It really is about making priorities,” Ige said of the requests, noting that the DOE consumes the largest portion of the budget among 20 state departments.

When asked by a reporter whether the budgeted amounts are adequate to provide a quality education to public school students, Ige replied, “Absolutely.”

In his capital improvements program, or CIP, budget, the governor reduced to $50 million the $455.5 million in lump-sum funding the DOE had requested in state-backed bonds. But Ige added in $30 million in bonds specifically for heat abatement.

“The DOE was unable to provide air conditioning for our public schools when temperatures reached record highs, making students miserable and unable to perform to their potential,” Ige wrote in his accompanying memo to the Legislature.

The University of Hawaii, meanwhile, had requested $16.2 million in budget add-ons for next year. Ige’s budget includes an additional $9.8 million for UH, which received $427.5 million in general funds for operations this year. (With all means of financing counted, including tuition revenue, UH is a $1.1 billion operation.)

Ige’s budget includes $4 million of the $5 million that the university sought for the UH Cancer Center. UH earlier this year hired a mainland consultant to assess the situation and develop a business plan for the center, which has been overspending revenues by $7.5 million to $9.5 million a year and burning through its reserves.

“I do believe that the Cancer Center is a resource that benefits the entire state,” Ige said. “The focus really is about being able to expand participation in clinical trials that really delivers to our communities the most advanced cancer care available.”

The governor also is including $3.5 million for an initiative to boost research and innovation, but rejected a $3 million request to support UH-Manoa’s athletics program, which has operated in the red much of the past decade.

In his CIP budget Ige slashed the university’s request for $185 million in state-backed bonds to $12.5 million. UH had requested more than $131 million in lump-sum bond financing for 71 projects across its 10 campuses, none of which are included in the governor’s proposal.

Ige did, however, add in $60 million specifically for deferred maintenance. Backlogged repair needs across the 10-campus system hit $503 million this year, and UH officials have blamed the state for not providing sufficient support in past years.

The Legislature, which convenes Jan. 20, typically uses the governor’s proposal as a starting point for crafting the state budget. Officials from the DOE and university are scheduled to make budget presentations before the state House and Senate money committees in coming weeks to lobby for their full funding requests.