[ OUR OPINION ]
ALTHOUGH the list of problems in Hawaii's public schools are numerous and formidable, many teachers, administrators and others on the front lines appear to be scraping together inventive solutions. Despite the state's fiscal shortages, legislators and the administration -- who have all said repeatedly that improvement in education is foremost -- must gather every penny for the effort. Fixing public schools
will take a collective effort
THE ISSUE Complaints about the education system should yield to a search for solutions.
The current atmosphere generated by Governor Lingle, whose election has altered Hawaii's political equilibrium, a determined school superintendent and a public expecting change, provides momentum for progress, to substitute the negative carping, finger-pointing and criticism with a new attitude.
In a series of articles published last week, Star-Bulletin education reporter Susan Essoyan dissected a number of difficulties facing the school system and unveiled solutions, large and small, that educators have initiated to deal with them. Essoyan detailed the success of two high-poverty schools in establishing a curriculum that elevates student achievement and how one teacher's "adoption" of a restroom in her school has converted a den for smokers to a bright, clean amenity.
While these successes are encouraging, there is much to be done. Textbooks remain in short supply and school repairs still lag behind needs. New federal requirements for achievement and providing for special education children will continue as challenges.
Meanwhile, lawmakers are contending with other issues, among them changing the age of enrollment for kindergarten. A bill proposes to delay start of school for children born in the latter part of a year, the notion being that they may not be as ready for school as their older counterparts. The difference of just a few months, some experts contend, can mean long-term learning problems for children who start off mentally and physically unprepared for instruction.
However, educators also agree that age is not the sole factor in determining a child's readiness for school, and, as the governor noted in her State of the State address, public education isn't "one size fits all." In that vein, lawmakers should assure avenues for younger children who don't fit the standard mold to enter the classroom. Indeed, as described in one of Essoyan's articles, Kamalii Elementary School on Maui has tooled its kindergarten program to cover a spectrum of student learning levels. The bill also should include a way to provide pre-school for later-born 5-year-olds whose parents cannot afford such instruction, because children benefit from the exposure.
School governance is a primary issue with the new administration. Lingle has proposed reorganizing the Board of Education, setting up seven district panels in hopes of increasing accountability and participation from parents and communities. She seeks to remove principals from union rosters, again for accountability.
Although these matters seem removed from the classroom, the diffusion of responsibilities among the various entities that control the school system needs definition and clarification. Some measure of fiscal autonomy for the Department of Education may be required for seamless operation. For example, legislators are proposing to remove from the loop of school repairs the Department of Accounting and General Services, thought to be the culprit in delays. However, examination without scapegoating is necessary before such steps are taken.
Whether Lingle's plan to reconfigure the school board is the right answer to governance, her intent to harvest more community and parental involvement is valid. Increasing the sense of ownership of our public schools will help in the efforts to better them.
Solutions will necessitate flexibility among education administrators, teachers, other public employees and their unions, nonpartisan actions by elected officials, and inclusion of students and school organizations, parents and community groups, businesses, private school educators and the university system -- in other words, everyone.
Improvements will also require altering the perception that everything about public education is broken and always will remain so. That kind of thinking is self-perpetuating.
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Published by Oahu Publications Inc., a subsidiary of Black Press.Don Kendall, Publisher
Frank Bridgewater, Editor 529-4791; fbridgewater@starbulletin.com
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Lucy Young-Oda, Assistant Editor 529-4762; lyoungoda@starbulletin.comMary Poole, Editorial Page Editor, 529-4748; mpoole@starbulletin.com
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