DOWNSIZING government is all the rage. We're all in favor of it -- Democrats, Republicans, labor and management. Just don't make us get too specific about what to cut. Productivity
is the answerIf you did, we might blurt out something like Sen. Roz Baker did when she pitched us the Senate's version of the Big Tax Cut. Baker says too many folks working at the University of Hawaii have more than 20 years service. Get them to take early retirement, hire cheaper beginners to take their place and -- ta-dah! -- the budget's practically balanced.
We have one word for Senator Baker: ''tenure.'' What do you call a nationally ranked research university without an experienced core of tenured faculty? Try ''community college.''
A good university is the sparkplug in the economic engine. That's the role the University of Washington fills for that state's booming aircraft, agriculture and software industries. Could it remain the spark plug if they replaced the computer science faculty with a bunch of kids from Microsoft? Not likely.
American business spent the '90s painfully re-engineering itself into a globally competitive force. It's not very complicated: Apply technology; train your workers; do more with less; work smarter not harder and boost productivity.
The only way to downsize government without eliminating services is to become more productive. Maybe if we asked 'em, those geezers at UH could tell us how to do it.
John Flanagan is editor and publisher of the Star-Bulletin.
To reach him call 525-8612, fax to 523-8509, send
e-mail to publisher@starbulletin.com or write to
P.O. Box 3080, Honolulu, Hawaii 96802.