Commentary from Senator Sakamoto

October 7, 2008

Students Expanding Their Horizons

$14.5M in school reductions proposed- Honolulu Star Bulletin October 4, 2008

About $14.5 million that funds 36 state Department of Education positions, salary benefits, teacher workshops and other services could be gone by the next academic year under an increasingly leaner budget being prepared for Gov. Linda Lingle.

State Sen. Norman Sakamoto, chairman of the Senate Education Committee, said he believes schools can use existing money more efficiently, but he hopes Lingle will preserve school funding once she receives budget proposals from other agencies.

"I think that....across-the-board cuts is not the best way to approach prioritizing the needs of our citizens, " said Sakamoto (D, Salt lake-Foster Village). "We can perhaps live with potholes and perhaps live with longer lines at the regulatory agencies, but we cannot live without our students expanding their horizons. They cannot catch up. They cannot repair what they missed in third grade."