While the 19 candidates seeking seven seats on the state Board of Education have varied backgrounds and political experience, they all share a common concern: budget cuts to public education.

Six incumbents are up for re-election with one of them, Breene Harimoto, elected outright since no one is challenging him for his seat as the Leeward O'ahu board member. And Kaua'i board member Maggie Cox and her challenger Larry Fillhart will advance directly to the November general election because theirs is a two-person race.

Longtime board member and former U.S. Rep. Cec Heftel has chosen not to seek re-election to his O'ahu at-large seat, meaning even if all six of the other incumbents return to office, there will be at least one new person on the board.

O'ahu at-large members Lei Ahu Isa and Garrett Toguchi face a slate of seven familiar and not-so-familiar challengers. Honolulu member Denise Matsumoto faces two challengers, while incumbent Herbert Watanabe faces three.

The concerns of each candidate vary widely, but all share a concern for recent — and possibly future — cuts to the state Department of Education budget.

"Having to deal with two cuts to our budgets, one from the Legislature and then from the governor, we need to look at the ways to prevent hurting education," Toguchi said.

Toguchi has served 10 years on the board and has focused on budget transparency, he said. In 2007 he championed a policy that required the DOE to evaluate each of its program every five years.

"We need to continue to push that policy further and make sure that every dollar that gets spent is analyzed," Toguchi said.

Ahu Isa, a former state representative, echoed Toguchi's concerns. She's running for her second term on the board.

"We looked at the budget and said, where is the fat? It's all in salaries in the central administrative office," Ahu Isa said.

The group of seven challenging Ahu Isa and Toguchi for the three O'ahu at-large seats on the board includes two prominent candidates — former BOE Chairman Randall Yee and former state Rep. Terrance Tom.

Yee, an estate planning attorney, vacated his seat in 2006 to run for state Senate. He says he brings experience and a knowledge of how DOE's bureaucracy works.

"When I was on the board we implemented a policy of reviewing programs. There are hundreds of various programs within schools, within districts. We need to speed up that process to make sure programs are being looked at," Yee said.

Tom, who served as a state representative from 1982 to 1998, said public school children are being "shortchanged" and holds the view that public education is underfunded.

"We need to get the money to the school level where the principals will have the flexibility to address the issues that are unique to each school," Tom said.

Tom said while the DOE's so-called weighted student formula attempts to get money to the school level, "I don't think the amount we have is adequate."

"Nothing is really enough when it comes to our kids. Our kids deserve more," he said.

Incumbent Matsumoto, who has been on the board since 1988, is facing a tight contest against two challengers — Carol Mon Lee, former associate dean of the University of Hawai'i William S. Richardson School of Law, and retired public school teacher Malcolm Kirkpatrick.

"It amazes me to think, when you look at all the positive changes happening in the schools, that they do it with so little," said Matsumoto, an early- childhood educator.

Matsumoto said one of the major challenges over the next few years will be public education's tighter budget.

"The challenge will be to figure out where to cut from without hurting the type of targeted assistance that schools will need to make 'adequate yearly progress,' " she said.

Matsumoto also said she is running for re-election to continue her work on the P-3 initiative, a partnership between the Good Beginnings Alliance, the DOE and UH focused on early childhood education.

"We need to have our children ready to learn by the time they enter kindergarten," she said.

Lee, who has never run for political office, said she decided to run after being frustrated by the slow progress in the public education system.

"I'm just tired of the same results," Lee said. "The BOE needs new blood and change."

Lee, who served 12 years on the board of trustees at St. Andrew's Priory School, said she would like to get more money to the classroom level.

"It means looking where students are doing well and where they are not doing well," Lee said. "Those who need more resources should get more resources so that those students can achieve."