An act of the Hawaii legislature directed the State Auditor to study three areas of Hawaii's publication education: inventory add-on programs or programs that compete with the core curriculum for instructional time, review Chapter 37, HRS, on budgeting; and review Chapter 26, HRS, as it applies to repair and maintenance (R&M) of school buildings. The Auditor was to determine whether the two chapters promote decision making at the school level. Findings indicate that the Board of Education policies and Department of Education documents do not clearly define the statewide curriculum and core programs. Neither core nor add-on programs, however defined, have been evaluated for meeting any statewide standard of student learning. The department has not managed the statewide curriculum in terms of what is written, taught, and tested. Regarding budgeting, state laws on budgeting do not constrain educational restructuring to promote decision making at the school level. The department's proposal for a lumpsum budget would give little added flexibility to schools. Finally, the findings on repair and maintenance found the memorandum of agreement to be outdated, and identified the most significant problem as a lack of funding for and a growing backlog of major repairs. The following recommendations are made: (1) develop new policies to clarify the statewide core curriculum and personnel roles; (2) authorize a lumpsum budgeting pilot project for school/community-based management schools; (3) revise the memorandum of agreement and determine how Oahu's schools can receive an equal level of R&M service; and (4) change responsibility for all informally bid major repairs and nonbid repairs. The Hawaii Department of Education does not agree with some of the recommendations. Three tables and eight figures are included. (LMI)