One of the strangest moves to come out of this year’s Legislature was the unilateral decision to move the University of Hawaii’s College of Education.
This decision was apparently reached after shape- shifting space aliens infiltrated the conference committee on the budget and inserted a line saying money to repair the UH “shall not be expended for the College of Education if the College of Education remains at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.”
The budget bill, which if signed by Gov. David Ige, will become a state law, also orders UH to not touch another $3 million appropriation “until the university establishes and implements a master plan that seamlessly transitions students and their high school pathway program and community college credits to any four-year state-funded post-secondary education institution.”
Rep. Isaac Choy, the outspoken chairman of the House Higher Education Committee, said he doesn’t like the idea, but it was just one of those things that popped into the budget.
In simple terms, Choy argues that UH is a big deal so it behooves a flagship university to have a College of Education located at its major campus, which is Manoa.
Jim Shon is the director of the Hawaii Educational Policy Center. He is alternately appalled and aghast at the seeming legislative whimsy of dictating the fate of an entire university branch without as much as a public hearing.
“Moving the College of Ed has never been discussed. It is arrogant and stupid,” Shon, a former legislator, said in an interview. “It is a legitimate policy discussion, but not if you don’t discuss it.
“This is micromanagement, and shows disrespect for the students and the college,” he said. “It is unbelievable.”
Nanea Kalani, Honolulu Star-Advertiser education reporter, wrote last month that Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz, as vice chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, was responsible for much of the state construction budget, including the College of Education proviso, but Dela Cruz wouldn’t say which colleagues asked for it.
“More importantly, for me, I think what’s critical is that UH has no academic- focused master plan,” Dela Cruz said in an interview. “We’re creating all these new programs, and graduates aren’t getting jobs. They should be consolidating so that we can make programs even stronger.”
Reporter Kalani noted that the UH Board of Regents in September passed a resolution calling on UH President David Lassner’s administration to do just that.
Meanwhile, Kalbert Young, who is UH’s chief financial officer, said there are work-arounds so the College of Ed doesn’t join the ranks of the homeless.
“I’m not overly concerned with the College of Ed proviso,” Young, who was Gov. Neil Abercrombie state budget director, said in an interview.
“We have some avenues to get funding to the College of Ed to do our planned projects. We only had two projects slated that would entail College of Ed. And, we have some avenues to do them still.”
Shon agreed with Young — there are other ways for the College of Education to survive — but what is troubling is, “What does this portend for the future? The long-term implication of UH autonomy is at stake.”
Or put another way: What if the space aliens return to next year’s budget conference committee? What is next on their list?
Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Reach him at rborreca@staradvertiser.com.
