Shine a light on education spending

The Grassroot Institute of Hawaii is kicking off a new education transparency intitiative.


In the pre-release: Shining the Light on Education Spending in Hawaii: Where Do Our Public Education Dollars Go?, Laura Brown notes:

Every year these DOE "cry wolf" tactics dupe the public into believing that Hawaii’s public education is under funded, but this time the Governor simultaneously released news that 651 DOE personnel recently attended a
conference at a Disneyland Resort in Orlando, Florida at a cost of at least $1.2
million. In response, a flood of skeptical comments from the public filled the commentary sections of the daily newspapers.

How can the Board of Education (BOE) believe that it must cut programs while the DOE carries over hundreds of millions of dollars? How can the Legislature annually appropriate millions in emergency funds not knowing that the DOE has more than enough money in the bank? A past superintendent testified before a Ways & Means committee that the DOE Budget Office does not communicate with the Accounting Office. In other words, there may be a budget “shortfall” on paper, but expenditures are consistently less than budgeted.

Humm, sounds like a familiar scenario... we look forward to seeing what the Grassroot Institute uncovers...