These are tough times for public schools — pandemic learning loss, aging facilities, needs for counseling services, fiscal challenges to meet rising labor costs. Too tough to add institutional upheaval to the mix.
And yet, this is where the state education system has landed.
The changes first came to light June 2 in an announcement from Gov. Josh Green of three new appointments to the state Board of Education, the policymaking body overseeing the state Department of Education administering the schools.
Business leader Warren Haruki, tapped as a new BOE member and its new chairman to replace Bruce Voss, topped the list. Also named were Kahele Dukelow, dean of arts and sciences at the University of Hawaii’s Maui College, and Shanty Asher of Honolulu, a current BOE member who would be serving a second consecutive term.
The displacement of Voss, who spearheaded the development of the board’s six-year strategic plan adopted in February, startled many people who are still unclear why it had to happen, including the Education Caucus of the Democratic Party of Hawaii. That group is pressing Green to ensure that the new board leadership push hard for initiatives created under Voss, including the strategic plan.
This is a rational request. At a minimum, the governor must be forthcoming on what he expects the shakeup to accomplish. What does he intend the board under Haruki to achieve?
And it would be dismaying to see the strategic plan, hammered out at great pains, shelved to gather dust. The 25-page document notes the “unprecedented disruption of COVID-19” and calls on the DOE to propose targets for key measures of student learning.
Among these: proficiency in language arts, mathematics and science; growth in academic proficiency; on-time and extended high school completion; enrollment in postsecondary education and training; and equity in learning across ethnicities, disabilities and socioeconomic status.
These are critical measures if DOE is to correct learning losses resulting from two-plus years of remote learning.
Weighing against progress are the budget cuts that were carried out to square a projected $1.1 billion state deficit in the 2023-25 biennium. The governor carved out $55 million of unallocated funds to narrow the DOE’s budget gaps: $57.1 million for the fiscal year starting July 1, and $109.7 million for fiscal 2025.
Operational repercussions likely will be painful, with less money available to distribute to schools for student needs, such as help with math proficiency and a boost for students learning to speak English.
The greater disparities lie in the schools’ capital improvements budgets, with cuts exceeding $400 million in each fiscal year. That will set the DOE further back in its construction, repair and maintenance jobs.
During the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s “Spotlight Hawaii” webcast on Friday, Green offered a general explanation about recent leadership changes to the BOE as well as the Hawaii Tourism Authority and the University of Hawaii Board of Regents: Better relationships with the Legislature leadership would yield better results when budgets are crafted.
“I can’t have these entities be in conflict with the Legislature and then see under-funding for our university, our schools or the tourism efforts that we have to make,” he said.
While there is some truth in that political reality, lawmakers have to meet administration leaders halfway in this relationship-building process.
And as for Green, he does have the right to choose a new team to carry out his agenda. But he also is responsible for the success of that agenda.
That starts with defining his vision for the schools, and following through in a publicly transparent way to see it carried out.
