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| Laura Brown |
A Hawaii Reporter investigation of several hundred pages of the Department of Education and Department of Defense repair and maintenance budget reports reveals a number of projects listed on the so-called $525 million list of "backlog" of repair and maintenance projects that have already been successfully completed -- and even paid for by the taxpayers -- and yet are still listed by the Department of Education as "unfunded."
In addition, several of the projects that were already funded, but listed by the Department of Education as not yet funded or completed, were actually paid for by the Department of Defense or handled by volunteers at no cost to the state.
The Department of Education books are so convoluted and outdated that Georgina Kawamura, Budget Director for the state of Hawaii, told Hawaii Reporter that the list of projects the Department of Education is presenting as part of the alleged $525 million backlog, changes on a daily basis and varies depending on who within the Department or the Legislature is consulted.
Part of the problem: Department of Education revenues are listed on what is described by insiders as one "archaic" computer and the expenditures are listed on another computer -- neither of which are connected or in sync with one another -- making it all the more difficult to track money taken in and spent by the Department of Education officials.
But Hawaii Reporter was able to cut through some of the nearly two feet of paperwork that outlines the Department budget and crosscheck it with the Department of Education’s own Web site as well as other state Web sites and financial reports.
This comparison reveals that the DOE list of backlog items has many substantial errors. The list has not been "scrubbed" and contains outdated data.
For example, the DOE lists as a backlog item nearly $17 million worth of projects that were already completed by the non-profit 3R’s program and the Joint Venture Education Forum (JVEF).
One specific example -- the backlog for Mililani Middle School lists "tinting windows" at a cost of $26,000 as unfunded and not completed, but that project was completed and paid for through the 3R’s program.
In some instances, contractors were hired and even paid for jobs the DOE said they completed, but in fact it was volunteers that completed the projects without funds from the state.
For example, a work order to paint bleachers at Mililani High School is listed on the DOE’s Factrak budget as both a "backlog project" and as a completed job. The contractor that supposedly finished the job is S&M Sakamoto, owned by the brother of Senate Education Chair Norman Sakamoto, who is partially responsible for the school receiving that funding.
Hawaii Reporter contacted S&M Sakamoto and its office confirmed that the company completed the $20,000 work order on the bleachers at Mililani High School last summer. However, Mililani High School administrators confirmed that the work was done, not by Sakamoto’s company, but instead by military volunteers.
Neither the Department of Accounting and General Services, which used to oversee construction on DOE properties, nor the DOE, which has taken control of the construction projects and procurement last year, could explain the discrepancies.
However, the actual amount the Department of Education needs to repair all of its some 282 schools in the state is significant because it has so far become the major focus of the 2006 Legislative Session, which opened Jan. 18, 2006.
Democrats in the state Legislature, including House Speaker Calvin Say and Senate President Robert Bunda, made an issue of the schools not getting enough money for repair and maintenance despite the fact that the DOE already receives $2 billion a year, for its 40,000 employees and 182,000 students or an estimated 1 employee to every 4 students. And it receives millions of dollars in addition for repair and maintenance.
Gov. Linda Lingle says that claim by Democrats is nonsense. The governor says her administration has already allocated $570 million to the DOE for repair and maintenance, but the money has not been used.
Lingle says there should not be one bathroom in the state schools that is in disrepair. The money already had been allocated to the DOE -- a department the governor does not oversee. The question, she says, is why haven’t the repairs to bathrooms and classroom buildings been completed?
Lingle’s Senior Policy Advisor, Linda Smith, stated that $570 million has been appropriated for school repairs but has not been spent, including $290 million (FY04-05) and $214.2 million (FY06). The CIP budget of $65.4 million (FY 07) has already been approved. Smith reiterates the governor question, asking, "Why has the funding has not gotten to the schools?"
The DOE’s Annual Report for Repair and Maintenance to the Legislature, documents that bonds have already been issued to fund over 90 percent of all listed projects -- the bulk of which have been completed or put out to bid.
Funding for these projects resulted from Act 316, SLH 2001 as the Legislature approved former Gov. Ben Cayetano’s request for $1 billion in construction bonds to eliminate the backlog of repair projects in the schools and to provide general funding for ongoing maintenance.
Gov. Linda Lingle also wants the DOE to be accountable for the billions of dollars it already has. But who is ensuring the DOE funds already allocated and in the pipeline are spent -- spent wisely -- and do not lapse?
The DOE does not seem to be ready for such a responsibility, critics say. The purchase of simple items such as carpet, paint and chalkboards, which typically last just 5 years or so before being replaced, are financed by the DOE with 20-year bonds because the DOE has lumped certain short-term projects into a category called "classroom renovation" to allow use of bonds.
But that means taxpayers are paying interest on the items long after they have been replaced several times over.
In addition, millions of dollars set aside under the renovation project remain on the backlog list and the DOE’s current list of backlog projects dates back to 1982.
While Lingle agrees some of the budget surplus should go to the schools to finance the remaining repairs needed, taxpayers deserve at least $300 million in tax relief, she says.
While the Senate president agrees that both the taxpayers and the schools should receive some of the $600 million surplus, House Speaker Calvin Say argues that the state government should keep the funds because the Legislature knows best how to spend the taxpayers’ money. He wants to give all the money to the schools.
Considering that the debt service incurred on $1 billion is likely eating up available operating capital for day-to-day maintenance of schools, some representatives in the Legislature are considering whether the paying down the state’s debt may be the best use of the current surplus in tax revenues.
They say the alternative -- which is not a good one concerned parents say -- is to continue to allow the DOE to spend money without results.
Laura Brown is the education reporter and researcher for HawaiiReporter.com and the education policy analyst for the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii. She can be reached via email at mailto:laurabrown@hawaii.rr.com
