Gov. David Ige Thursday morning said he will reduce public school budget cuts from 10 to 2.5 percent. While that’s an improvement, the Hawaii State Department of Education still faces roughly $140 million in cuts with hundreds of potential layoffs, the Hawaii State Teachers Association’s president said.
In a statement Thursday, Ige said:
“Due to the pandemic and subsequent reduction in revenues, we anticipated that the Dept. of Education, which is the largest general funded department, would have to take a 10% cut to its budget. However, with additional federal funds and more optimistic revenue projections by the Council on Revenues, we are able to reset the department’s target reductions to 2.5%. This represents about $123 million that we can now restore to our public-school classrooms so our students can be set on the path to prosperity and success.”
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Testifying Thursday morning at the Board of Education’s Human Resources Committee meeting just minutes after the governor’s announcement, HSTA President Corey Rosenlee said it’s an improvement, but schools still face daunting reductions.
“We’re still dealing with a cut that is greater than it should be and would still have a devastating impact on our schools,” Rosenlee said.
Rosenlee estimated that still means the department faces $140 million of cuts next school year, which would lead to 688 teachers among the more than 1,110 HIDOE employees losing their jobs in the fall.
Cindy Covell, HIDOE’s assistant superintendent, confirmed Rosenlee’s estimates when questioned by BOE members. “As we continue to get more information and additional funds, we will adapt accordingly,” Covell said.
Rosenlee later said he still had some key questions, including:
- Will the governor restore the $100 million that has already been cut from HIDOE’s budget this fiscal year?
- How much of the $123 million in restored funds will be applied to $83 million in unmet needs from this year? “Otherwise, we fear the budget cuts to schools remain the same,” Rosenlee said.
- Has the governor changed his overall furlough plan?
Schools Superintendent Christina Kishimoto read the governor’s statement to the BOE committee at the beginning of its meeting and then said, “This is certainly very good news and we appreciate the continued work with the governor and budget and finance team and continued progress.”
BOE member Bruce Voss said the governor’s announcement was good news and he hoped that means the HIDOE can “take away all if not most of the position cuts at the school level.”
Under President Joe Biden’s plan to aid schools during the pandemic announced Thursday, schools could tap disaster relief funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for COVID-related expenses, such as personal protective equipment, sanitation, improved ventilation, reconfigured classrooms and upgraded technology.
Kishimoto has said the state will need to spend about $1 million a month on PPE and other safety supplies once Hawaii schools fully reopen to students.
Biden has proposed an additional $130 billion for K-12 public schools and $350 billion for states and local governments, as part of a $1.9 trillion pandemic aid package that’s now before Congress.
In written testimony to the BOE, Rosenlee said, “We should wait to see how many of these proposals Congress approves and wait to answer the questions listed above before the BOE decides how to use stimulus funding in Hawaii. HSTA sees no reason why the BOE has to approve this budget now before these critical questions can be answered.”
Teachers focus on budget cut fallout across the state
Baldwin High teacher David Negaard told the board while he and other teachers are relieved some of the cuts are being reduced, “Just because we’re not losing as much blood as feared doesn’t mean we’re not bleeding.”
Mike Landes teaches social studies at Lahainaluna High on Maui and serves as HSTA’s Maui Chapter president.
“The budget cuts the department is asking schools to make will have alarming impacts on my own school, cutting seven-and-a-half teacher positions, which is 10 percent of our faculty. But I’m even more concerned about the effects of the schools I represent islandwide,” he told the board.
“Principals across both Maui complexes have said they'll be cutting special education, electives including art, student activities coordinators, Hawaiian immersion positions, and teachers who provide targeted intervention services to struggling students,” Landes testified.
Inga Park Okuna, a counselor at Kalihi Uka Elementary and HSTA Honolulu Chapter president, spoke on behalf of teachers in the Farrington-Kaiser-Kalani and Kaimuki-McKinley-Roosevelt complexes.
Under the initial cuts proposed by the department, Okuna testified, “We will lose a total of 84 teaching positions citywide if this plan goes through, the equivalent of laying off nearly all the teachers at Roosevelt High. Specifically, principals have said they will be cutting special (education) teachers as well as (general education) positions.
“We want students to reach their aspirations, but we'll cut teachers in the arts and physical (education), and in libraries. We want to develop healthy, joyful lifelong learners, but we'll cut counselors and health teachers. We want to ensure equal access, but we'll cut special (education) and EL (English learner) teachers. The flyer for Jan. 30 It's Great to be a Teacher 2021 event says, ‘Find out how you can become a teacher and be part of a movement that will make a difference for Hawaii’s future generations.’ How can we be cutting positions and hope to attract anyone to this profession?” Okuna asked.
HSTA also submitted written testimony on behalf of dozens of members who wished to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation.
Mililani High Principal Fred Murphy testified in detail about what he called the “gut-wrenching” process of deciding what and who to cut from his school’s budget.
“So when we looked at nearly a million dollars of WSF (weighted student formula) funding reduction, which is just over 7.5 percent of our WSF, and then nearly $260,000 of special education per-pupil allocation, which was over 12 percent of our special education funding. Those were significant cuts,” Murphy said describing the cuts his school had to face.
“We cut 100-percent support funds for athletics, transportation and equipment funds for athletics and music. Seventy-five percent of our support for students and travel. Many of our students travel abroad and we knew that we wouldn't be able to prioritize those funds. Fifty percent of professional development funds — we spend about $120,000 a year on supporting our teachers and becoming better at what they do in the classroom,” Murphy said.
“But after we did all of that, we still needed nearly $400,000 of reductions and that came through six teaching positions. We had two retirees so through attrition I was able to make those cuts without any huge pain, but we then cut six general education positions from teachers. In special education, the cuts were much more significant,” he told the BOE.
“It meant that we had to eliminate 16 of 17 educational assistant positions in special education. So to tell you that was painful is a huge understatement. But I'm just, I'm overjoyed with the prospect of being able to restore that funding and go back to the people who I had to stand in front of and tell them that we didn't have a position for them next year, and I had dozens of meetings with personnel and now I'm going to be able to go and give them the great news,” Murphy said.
BOE members express deep concerns about school cuts
BOE Chair Catherine Payne said, “When I see that schools are cutting health and PE, the arts, and many programs that support students, particularly safety and counseling and after-school things, and I do understand if there's no money, there truly is no money, which makes it more critical that we make sure that we advocate for these resources. But to not provide health and PE instruction in some schools I think would be in violation of board policy, and some of the other things too as I was looking through. I'm not sure how we can accommodate all the policies we have of what we expect for students to have provided to them in our schools if these cuts are sustained.”
Payne also raised concerns that the first some educators heard about specific proposed cuts at their schools “was when they saw the information posted on our website.”
“This caused a lot of turmoil and upset in the field. So I would ask that you talk to the principals that they are in communication with their staff before things are publicly shared,” Payne said to Kishimoto and other HIDOE leaders.
BOE member Maggie Cox said as the department is contemplating cuts, it needs to “be looking at (preserving) personnel first and stuff later.
“We are going to have to depend on our teaching skills to help our students. So, if it's very clear that stuff is not a first priority for us, and that we're expecting that whatever it is we do, we make sure that we're not piling up and making the class sizes so large — in my experience, I had to have a class with 40-some kids. You don't do a good job with any of them,” Cox said.
BOE member Bruce Voss expressed concerns that “special education funds cannot be cut, because those are the students that most of all need to be protected.”
Jennifer Oana’s son is a kindergartener and special education student at a public school who has cognitive delays and is hard of hearing.
“Special education children without appropriate special education services will be left behind, no doubt. And although I understand that the state’s money is tight, cuts should come from other places, not cuts to special education services,” Oana testified.