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By Susan Essoyan
The Honolulu Star Bulletin, April 10, 2003
— In the fractious debate over funding for public schools,
Gov. Linda Lingle and state House Democratic leaders have finally
found some common ground.
The idea bringing them together is an approach to
budgeting touted by management guru William Ouchi, which gives schools
money based on the hurdles their students face.
The amount per student would be weighted according
to factors that traditionally hold back academic achievement, such
as poverty or high teacher turnover, with more resources going to
the neediest. Students could choose which school to attend, and
the money would follow them if they switched. Each school would
decide how to spend its budget dollars.
“It's an important first step, and the governor
is very hopeful that members of the Legislature will work with her
in fleshing out a complete plan,” said Randy Roth, senior
policy advisor to Lingle.
House Democratic leaders are so taken with the idea
that they held a news conference yesterday to promote it. Schools
Superintendent Pat Hamamoto and a representative of the Hawaii State
Teachers Association attended and expressed support.
“This plan will put real budgeting power into
the hands of local schools where it belongs,” said House Majority
Leader Scott Sakai (D, Moiliili-McCully). He said the program has
been adopted in Seattle and Edmonton, Canada, and test scores shot
up in both places.
The idea is not new. It was studied by the Department
of Education back in 1994. It resurfaced last month while Ouchi,
a management professor at the University of California-Los Angeles,
was in Hawaii to visit his parents. Roth set up meetings for him
with the governor, legislative leaders and educators.
The approach, known as Weighted Student Formula, takes
time to develop and could not be implemented in the biennial budget
now being negotiated at the Legislature.
Traditionally, legislators budget money by educational
program, rather than by student, and give direction on how it should
be spent. “We've never given it in a lump-sum way,”
said Rep. Roy Takumi (D, Pearl city-Palisades).
Giving schools control of their budgets and letting
them compete for students can foster improvement, according to Ouchi.
He is best known for his 1981 bestseller, “Theory Z: How American
Management Can Meet the Japanese Challenge.” More recently
he co-authored a study, “The Impact of Organization on the
Performance of Nine School Systems: Lessons for California,”
published this year.
House leaders see weighted budgeting as a means of
giving control to the ultimate grass roots: the individual schools.
The administration, however, believes that for the new budget formula
to succeed, Hawaii must have locally elected school boards and principals
who are held accountable for school performance, Roth said.
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