School head’s budget figures need to be checked

The Maui News reported that Superintendent Kishimoto had 94 percent of the budget spent at the school level. I really would like someone to check that.

At the very least, this statement is misleading because it implies that 94 percent of the budget is spent on teaching the students, but there are plenty of initiatives that play out at the school level, are expensive and don’t have anything to do with a better learning experience for the students.

For example, students have not even met their teachers but were asked to fill out a survey to rate their teachers. I wonder how much money Panorama Education gets for that, but yes, this was done at the school level. Does it support learning? How much does high-stakes testing cost and does it really impact learning? This is also done at the school level. How about the implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards?

I shudder to think how much this implementation did cost. Cutting back on art programs, music, Hawaiian immersion and PE? How about cutting back on spending money on programs that sound good to people in offices and instead supporting student learning where it is needed: offering a variety of classes, for special education programs and on getting more teachers instead of cutting teacher positions.

There is a magic low number of new corona infections that triggered the impending opening of schools for the second semester. Isn’t Hawaii doing so well in this pandemic precisely because of what we are doing?

Amanda Crusoe

Haiku