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School accountability
measures OK’d

The school system seeks
freedom from regulatory
constraint to set a plan

By Crystal Kua
Star-Bulletin

Details, details, details.

In his quest for authority and accountability to improve the public schools, state Schools Superintendent Paul LeMahieu provided a few more specifics on the one hand while he remained intentionally inexact on the other.

So before the House Education Committee passed bills yesterday that are designed to free the school system from regulatory constraint to establish an accountability plan, questions arose about what these ideas would look like and mean for schools.

One measure, which LeMahieu calls the authority bill, would establish an educational accountability working group to identify within the next year a list of rules, policies and procedures that are restricting the school system in managing its own affairs.

Beginning in July 2001, those regulations would be suspended for two years to allow the department to forge ahead with its accountability plans, according to the bill.

A second measure, referred to as the accountability bill, would establish the framework of an accountability system that would include rewards, assistance and sanctions as schools work toward meeting state standards. The bill would also mandate continued professional training for teachers and administrators.

Resurrected in this bill is language that exempts the department's accountability plan from the collective-bargaining law, which public employee unions continued to oppose yesterday.

Most spoke in favor of the exemption, saying collective bargaining doesn't bring all the voices to the table.

"Collective bargaining currently excludes too many others who have a stake in our educational system," said former Kauai Mayor JoAnn Yukimura, who testified as vice president of Trenchless Engineering Corp. and a parent.

The Board of Education had previously deleted this exemption when it looked at the bill in December, but the governor backed LeMahieu's position on the exemption, and the language was put back in the bill. Board Vice Chairwoman Karen Knudsen said the board may re-examine its position.

With the support of business, parents and other interested parties, both bills were approved by the committee with minor changes.

LeMahieu wants the authority to organize itself without approval from outside agencies, to define work scope, establish job titles and provide merit/critical shortage pay increases and to reallocate positions. In each of those matters, he would be willing to consult and confer with the unions.

But Hawaii Government Employees Association representative Lei Desha said the union supports LeMahieu's intent in his authority bill but is concerned about the lack of details.

"I think for the HGEA, we want to know what he is looking at. It's so broad and all-encompassing," Desha said.