Lingle battles Democrats
on education reform planThe governor renews push to split
the school board into seven units
Democrats in the state Legislature are "playing politics" with the educational future of public school students, Gov. Linda Lingle charged yesterday.
The Republican governor renewed her campaign to dismantle the centralized state Department of Education and chop up the single statewide school board into seven boards.
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& Hawaii Revised StatutesShe also launched a new attack on the Democratic majority, promising to remind voters "why what is being proposed (by Democrats) is fake reform."
"It is obvious that they are playing politics with the children of Hawaii," Lingle told reporters.
Democrats shot back that Lingle has not proved that smaller school boards will improve student performance.
"She hasn't connected the dots yet. She hasn't come up with the details that would work," said Senate President Robert Bunda (D, Wahiawa-Pupukea).
"All the evidence points to the fact that her school board issue does not track with student achievement," he said.
While educational reform is called the top issue of this legislative session, Lingle and the Democrats have failed to find common ground.
Lingle proposes breaking up the Department of Education, while Democrats want to keep the existing set-up and allow local schools more decision-making authority.
"They (Democrats) should stop it and they should get serious. They should take the comprehensive plan we gave them as a starting point," Lingle said.
Her proposal was shot down in the House and not considered in the Senate.
Dividing the school board into seven boards would require a constitutional amendment that would need voter approval, and Lingle said the Democrats don't want to put the issue before the people.
"I think they are scared to put our idea on the ballot, because they know the public supports it," Lingle said.
Rep. Roy Takumi, House Education Committee chairman, said Lingle is gambling with students' education.
"In her bill, she rolls the educational dice and says: If people vote for local school boards, then and only then can we have student-weighted formula, principal empowerment, school site councils, delinking the department, stop micromanaging the department," said Takumi (D, Pearl City-Pacific Palisades).
"We believe we can do that upon approval (of the reform bill) and we don't have to wait one or two years for it to happen, we don't have to raise up to $3 million on a special election," he said.
Lingle, however, said her proposal was the "publicly generated" product of a summer-long series of public hearings.
"Our plan came about after months of work with the public, public hearings and a public committee, while theirs was just done in a back room," Lingle said.
In 2002, both the House and Senate voted for different versions of a school reform bill (Senate Bill 3018) that would have split up the school board into multiple boards. But the two bodies could not agree on how many school boards were needed and instead recommended a study.
During the House debate in 2002, Rep. Brian Schatz (D, Makiki) said: "Parents will be able to talk directly with their local boards to express the needs of their children rather than railing against what they perceive as an unresponsive bureaucracy."
House Finance Chairman Dwight Takamine (D, Hawi-Hilo) also supported the school board break-up. "By placing educational decisions into the hands of local leadership, we allow schools to address needs and make adjustments that are more specific and responsive to their unique communities," he said in 2002.
Lingle said yesterday that Democrat legislators now reject a breakup of the school board system because she is pushing the issue.
"Clearly, it is just politics for them at this point and the children's future is too important and too serious to degrade like this," Lingle said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
