Public schools would see some of the biggest cuts under a revised budget Gov. David Ige submitted to lawmakers this week after intense criticism that his proposed two-year, $28.5 billion budget plan was unrealistic.

In a 26-page memorandum Tuesday to the Legislature, Ige trimmed more than $21 million, mostly in per-pupil funds, from his proposed budget for the Department of Education.

The Board of Education had sought $83.6 million in budget add-ons for the upcoming fiscal year to supplement the department’s base budget of nearly $1.6 billion in state general funds. Despite calling education one of his top budget priorities, the governor initially reduced the department’s requests by almost half to $44.5 million in the state budget he put forward in December.

In the governor’s revised budget, an initial $28 million boost he had proposed for the Weighted Student Formula — which Ige in December touted as the “largest investment in instruction at the school level ever” — has been reduced to $10 million.

He also has reduced funds for the Early College program, which provides students an opportunity to earn college credit for free while satisfying high school diploma requirements; public preschool; charter schools; and student transportation.

“The biggest appropriation we had in the budget was for education, so we had to scale back some of the education appropriations,” Ige said Friday. “It still would be an increase over what was in the budget previously, but it’s less than what we had initially proposed.”

When his executive budget was first unveiled, the chairwomen of the House and Senate money committees were especially critical of Ige inserting tens of millions of dollars for state departments that didn’t ask for the money. That included a $10 million annual appropriation Ige sought to launch an innovation fund that public schools would be able to tap for out-of-the-box approaches to improve student outcomes.

The $10 million — which the Board of Education did not request in its budget — survived the governor’s cutbacks.

Funding innovation

In defending his decision to reduce other education priorities while maintaining the innovation funding, Ige said the idea for the grant program stemmed from feedback received at community forums hosted by a group of volunteers he tasked with creating a “blueprint” to reform the public school system.

“What we’ve heard over and over and over again from schools is that … they believe those at the school know what programs are best able to meet the educational needs of the students in their community, and they would like access to state funds to try innovative programs,” Ige said.

Some lawmakers, however, appear skeptical of the idea.

At a House Education hearing Wednesday on funding legislation to establish the program, some lawmakers expressed concern over a lack of details on how the program would work.

House Bill 1092, which was introduced as part of the governor’s package, would set up the grant program under the direction of the Board of Education.

The board would be required by law to adopt guidelines and measures of success to implement the program; develop a request for proposals with a schedule of submission and award deadlines; create a grant review and awards committee; and make awards to schools or programs “that have the potential for knowledge transfer within the public school system” — all before the start of the next school year.

“This bill gives a lot of authority to the Board of Education,” state Rep. Takashi Ohno, a former elementary school teacher who served on the governor’s blueprint task force, said at the bill hearing. “And this is quite a substantial sum that the request is for. … I want to hope that something like this succeeds, but in our experience there’s been some finger-pointing: The board has pointed to the department. The bill clearly points to the board. The board has mentioned this is in the governor’s budget.”

Core needs remain

State Rep. Roy Takumi, chairman of the House Education Committee, said he’d prefer to see funds go to the basic needs of the department — millions of dollars that the governor cut in his initial budget proposal.

Takumi noted that the executive budget zeroes out funding for some of the core functions of the Department of Education, including funding for Title IX and civil rights compliance and liaisons to support families of homeless students.

“While I understand it’d be great to have new money … I really do think we need to start with the basics,” he said.

He also said that by establishing the program through legislation, the term “innovation” would have to be defined in statute, which would then limit how the grants can be used.

Takumi instead suggested putting the money toward the Weighted Student Formula to be distributed among schools.

Lawmakers created the funding method in 2004 as a way to ensure that funds go to schools with the greatest needs, recognizing that some students cost more to educate. Schools get a set amount of base funds from the pot, and the formula assigns “weights” to various student characteristics such as economic disadvantage, special education and English-language learners. Principals have discretion over the spending.

“Why not just add $10 million to the weight, give it to schools?” Takumi said. “With an innovation grant, if schools want to apply for money, you’re putting them in a box.”

Ige contends the per-pupil money schools receive is not sufficient to encourage innovation.

“Based on the Weighted Student Formula, you can do some things, but, really, there’s not enough in the base budget that would support them really doing something different,” Ige said. “What we’re trying to do is create the opportunity for schools to come up with innovative programs and ask for the funds that would support that, whether it be $50,000 or $100,000 or $250,000 more.”

The House Education Committee postponed voting on the measure until Wednesday. A companion Senate bill has yet to be scheduled for an initial hearing.