New Hawaii Ed Board Tackles Budget Cuts
The new appointed Hawaii State Board of Education will have to approve its first budget cuts Tuesday.
The Legislature from EDN100, the spending category used to fund the Weighted Student Formula, which is the formula used to determine how much each school principal receives in discretionary spending.
But from Superintendent Kathryn Matayoshi suggests the board instead distribute the cuts to soften the classroom-level impact on students.
She recommends reducing the Weighted Student Formula budget by $7,780,475, and absorbing the other $8,619,525 by:
- Eliminating the general fund budgets for the adult education program, school community councils, and the accreditation/school improvement program;
- Moving certain categorical programs into the Weighted Student Formula;
- Reducing the non-salary budget for the Lahainaluna Boarding Program by 10 percent; and
- Reducing the non-salary amounts for most other programs by 2.5 percent.
The board’s Committee on Finance and Infrastructure meets at to discuss the superintendent’s recommendations, and the full board meets later that afternoon to discuss and act on the committee’s recommendation.
To read more about the Department of Education budget:
- Getting to the Bottom of Hawaii’s Education Budget
- What It Takes To Understand Hawaii’s Education Budget
