West Hawaii Today - from archives > Local > Charter schools caught between Legislature, BOE

Click Photo to Enlarge

West Hawaii Explorations Academy teacher Silvia Texeria, right, give her students instructions in preparation for work on the dry land reforestation project. Charter school advocates from the Big Island will be converging on the Capitol on Monday to support bills giving a charter school panel more authority over how the schools are run.- - Michael Darden | West Hawaii Today File Photo

Charter schools caught between Legislature, BOE

by Nancy Cook Lauer
Stephens Capitol Bureau
nclauer@stephensmedia.com
Saturday, February 10, 2007 9:36 AM HST

HONOLULU -- Charter school advocates from the Big Island will be converging on the Capitol on Monday to support bills giving a charter school panel more authority over how the schools are run.

The charter schools, a type of public school that is supposed to have more autonomy than the traditional public schools, have been much like the rope in a tug-of-war between the Legislature and the Board of Education over who should govern them.

There are 27 charter schools with an enrollment of 5,798 students and 500 staff in the state, with many of them on neighbor islands. But although charter schools account for just $46 million of BOE's $2.6 billion budget, advocates feel they're too often the focus of BOE scrutiny.

The Washington, D.C.-based Center for Education Reform, a pro-charter advocacy group, gives Hawaii a "D" for how it has developed its charter school program. States are graded on the autonomy of the schools and the approval process, the amount of money provided to them and the number of schools allowed, among other factors.

Currently, there are open slots for three new startup charter schools and more than 20 that can convert from traditional public schools.

The Legislature's attempts last year to form a Charter School Review Panel to evaluate existing charter schools and set up processes to create new ones has been slow to take shape, with the charter schools accusing the BOE of refusing to give up its power over them.

"It's not only dragging its feet, it's dragging everything behind it," Steve Hirakami, president of the Pahoa-based Hawaii Charter Schools Network said of the BOE. "We need to get some continuity; we need to get the process moving."

Both the House and Senate Education committees are expected to hear bills on the issue Monday afternoon. Senate Committee Chairman Norman Sakamoto, D-Waimalu. Airport, Salt Lake, and House Committee Chairman Roy Takumi, D-Pearl City, Momilani, Pacific Palisades, have each sponsored bills (SB 603, HB 594) giving the Charter School Review Panel more authority.

"Last year we created the advisory panel to help get a handle on the charter school process, to do a lot of the heavy lifting," Sakamoto said. "We need to see if the panel can take on additional responsibility."

Republican Gov. Linda Lingle has submitted her own bills (SB 1432, HB 1346) taking that power a step further, by changing the review panel into the Public Charter School Authority that would have parallel powers to the BOE. Authority members would be appointed by the governor, rather than the BOE.

Another bill being heard Monday, SB 965, would give charter schools, rather than the BOE, the power to hire and fire the charter school administrator. Charter schools last year were in an uproar after the BOE fired Charter School Administrator Jim Shon, saying he wasn't taking the schools in the direction the board wanted. A permanent replacement hasn't been hired.

House Minority Leader Lynn Finnegan, R-Lower Pearlridge, Aiea, Halawa, a member of the House Education Committee, said the flurry of bills demonstrates a strong bipartisan support for charter schools.

"The Board of Education always holds onto ways they can be the authority, and this isn't what charter schools were developed for," Finnegan said. "I hope we can have legislation that allows the charter schools to break free from the bureaucracy, but still have accountability."

The BOE will be testifying against the bills, said BOE Chairwoman Karen Knudsen. She said the law was just enacted last year, and the BOE needs more time to implement it and prove it can work.

"It's been a little bit tumultuous, I think we understand that. But we have new board members and a new leadership," Knudsen said. "I think progress is being made. We're just asking the Legislature to give us more time to push this forward."

The panel the Legislature created last year was finally allowed to get down to business this month, after the BOE had held it up until administrative rules were in place for its actions. The rules still haven't been finalized, but the panel is moving ahead.

"My concern about this is, if we're evaluated on our first year, they'll say we haven't really done anything," said Charter School Review Panel member Ku Kahakalau of Waimea, director of New Century Public Charter School. "We are seven, eight months behind. The panel is very committed. We don't want to be the ones who are accused of holding up this or holding up that."

Tell lawmakers what you think

Testimony can be submitted by e-mail to testimony@capitol.hawaii.gov or faxing it toll free to (800) 586-6659 for the Senate and (800) 535-3859 for the House. Be sure to include the bill number. Go to http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov for information on bills, lawmakers and committees.