Thirty-nine Department of Education programs have been merged into 12, as part of a DOE streamlining suggested by a recent PricewaterhouseCoopers audit that called for reducing duplication and improving use of personnel.

The department is also looking at additional programs that can be folded together.

"We're looking at programs with common core functions so we can trace operations and outcomes," Schools Superintendent Pat Hamamoto told a Board of Education committee recently.

"There will be less paperwork. We'll pool resources and leverage our resources."

Included in the consolidation is better use of technology so that the department will soon be able to track the progress of every child in the public system, and know if children are receiving additional services if they're needed.

Along with tracking children, the department also hopes the consolidation will better track money and how it's spent.

"For instance, if we want to know how much we're spending for recruitment, I should be able to provide you a number," she told board members. "Right now it's scattered through many programs.

"That's the transparency we're looking for, to know where all this money is located."

The DOE currently has an annual budget of approximately $2.1 billion out of a total state budget of about $9 billion.

It will be simplified next fiscal year when, under the Reinventing Education Act, schools will receive lump sums rather than having the central department administration dole out pieces of the budget and handle the financing for others.

Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com.