Mandatory School Time in Hawaii? We Can’t Afford It
Legislators passed a law in 2010 requiring a minimum number of classroom hours for Hawaii’s students — all to avoid another Furlough Fridays debacle. It was a noble goal, but it looks like it’ll have to wait: The state just can’t afford the extra school hours.
Last year students lost 17 days of class to furloughs. Incensed parents successfully petitioned for , which progressively increases, over a period of five years, the number of hours that public school teachers must spend instructing students.
The process of increasing teaching time is supposed to begin with the 2011-2012 school year, but recent moves by the Hawaii Senate Committee on Education could derail the effort — or at least delay it until 2014.
Citing budget concerns, the committee offered a Senate draft of Wednesday afternoon that would delay the start date for the progressive increase in instructional hours.
“Given the fiscal situation we’re dealing with, we need to keep our options open,” said Senate Education Chairwoman Jill Tokuda.
The state’s projected $1.36 billion budget shortfall over the next two years has dimmed the possibility of paying for the additional hours because, like other key education reforms, minimum instructional time depends on collective bargaining.
Department of Education Superintendent Kathryn Matayoshi testified earlier this year that negotiating the longer hours with teachers and other school employees would be expensive. At a minimum, the price tag would be $45 million, she said Wednesday — and that’s just for teachers.
The department is already facing crushing financial burdens. She told the Board of Education earlier this week that the department will probably have to absorb more than $110 million in budget cuts over the next two years in addition to the $469 million shortfall that first led to Furlough Fridays.
“If all of the state office and district office personnel could be eliminated, along with the complex area offices, you would not have even begun addressing the budget shortfall,” Matayoshi said. “It is almost hard to imagine how we are going to meet it. There are very few places left in the department that can be cut to the levels that are needed without touching the students.”
Hawaii’s Budget and Finance director echoed Matayoshi’s concerns when he spoke in support of the proposed delay on mandatory instruction time.
“If it has to be afforded in the collective bargaining process and there’s an additional cost to it, we have to be cognizant that we don’t have the funds to pay for it, or the likelihood of those funds materializing,” said Kalbert Young, director of the Department of Budget and Finance.
He added that because the education department makes up about one-third of the state’s total budget, severe budget cuts are inevitable.
“I can’t say that it would be realistic to say that any department could be spared,” he said. “And when you’re that size, you have to believe there’s going to be some significant pain there.”
Parents Melanie Bailey and Debbie Schatz of Kailua testified against the measure, recalling the effort they and other parents last year put into obtaining the law for minimum instruction time.
