Brainstorm! Challenge

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Improving education will take commitment

With much of the focus on educational governance restructuring, a critical component of public education must not be neglected: the commitment to provide essential resources for student achievement.

Strategies most likely to improve student achievement are small schools, highly qualified teachers, a comprehensive curriculum and high-quality preschools, to name a few. Other essentials are adequate school facilities and effective school leaders. These all require sufficient funding.

The reality is that there is not enough funding to meet cost increases in public education. Currently, there is a $600 million-plus backlog in statewide school repairs and maintenance, financial pressure from the No Child Left Behind Act and Felix Consent Decree, and greater resource needs to help students meet the standards.

Like educational governance, money itself is not a cure-all for all problems in education. Parent-community partnerships, a commitment to high standards and achievement by all and accountability also are musts. But without sufficient funding, efforts to educate Hawaii students will not be fully realized.

Shirley Robinson
Member, Board of Education

HTA money should go toward environment

The Hawaii Tourism Authority gets $61 million per year from taxpayers, mainly to market Hawaii to the world. Much of the money goes for promotional efforts, such as TV ads on the mainland. To its credit, HTA realizes that product development is part of marketing, too. HTA has a program that, for example, fosters the preservation of Hawaii's host culture. But HTA is not doing enough to maintain its product -- it seems to be doing nothing to preserve our uniquely beautiful environment.

So lots of money is being spent to promote Hawaii as a tourist destination, but the product itself is being neglected. Hawaii's environment enjoys an occasional victory, but the overall quality has been declining for a long time. If environmental quality declines below a certain level, visitors will stop coming to Hawaii no matter how many ads they see on TV.

Unfortunately, the multinational corporations that own hotels in Hawaii have different priorities. Their main concern is profitability; they want to attract customers in the immediate future. If in the more distant future the environment becomes so polluted that tourists won't come, the multinationals will simply leave Hawaii and build hotels somewhere else.

The $61 million per year allocated to HTA should be redirected toward preserving the environment. This would be good for the long-term prospects of tourism and for all of us who live here and intend to stay.

John Kawamoto
Honolulu

Fundamentalist Islam breeds violence

The brutal murder of Nick Berg proves that the enemy we face is fundamentalist Islam. The prisoner abuse, while horrible, is being used by these fundamentalist Muslims to wage war on the west.

Though we are not actively fighting these thugs, we do find comfort and strength in conservative Christianity and also do our part to resist fundamentalist Islam.

Clifford Ishii
Waimea, Kauai

Felix isn't perfect but it is necessary

Rebecca Rosenberg, a long-time Department of Education Windward District resource teacher, makes wild claims about the excess advantages to special-needs children under the Felix Consent Decree ("Felix works for some but has big flaws," Letters, May 13). The Legislature and DOE cannot even account for money spent for special education, as evidenced by the continuation of the Felix Legislative Investigative Committee in an attempt to find out.

As a technical assistance member to the DOE during her years at Individual Education Plan meetings, did Rosenberg ever recommend that the DOE issue a prior written notice if it disagreed with irresponsible spending or services?

She states, "State education funds pay for children who take psychotropic medications such as Ritalin to visit their physicians on a regular basis to monitor their medication usage," but clarifies that federal law does not require this. However, the DOE insisted that medication monitoring be included under the shift to school-based behavioral health, despite parent protests.

It's no consolation to special-ed parents that Rosenberg has the personal resources to put her son in private school, while their children remain trapped in the dysfunctional public school system.

Irene Newhouse
Kihei, Maui

Cat-killings meant to scare caretakers

I was appalled to read your May 24 front page story on the deaths of three feral cats that were killed and hung on display in Honokohau Harbor on the Big Island. The headline said it was "apparently a protest against people feeding the animals." This was a heinous act of animal cruelty obviously meant to frighten and intimidate the people who care for these cats.

On Oahu, the humane society works with feral cat caretakers and offers them free spaying and neutering for their colonies. They have established guidelines and relationships. This situation does not exist on the Big Island. Here, cat colony caretakers who feed, trap, neuter, return and manage the health of their colonies are constantly harassed, intimidated, verbally abused -- even humiliated. Authorities here do not support these cat caretakers, who are providing an important community service.

Now the harassment has taken an ugly turn, and this reflects poorly on our community as a whole. In the words of Mohandas Gandhi: "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated."

Ruth Savakinas
Kailua-Kona, Hawaii

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[ BRAINSTORM! ] The ponds at the state Capitol are full of icky green stuff. What, besides holding an election, can we do to get rid of all that scum at the Big Square Building? Or should we just replace the ponds with something else? Tell us what you think, whether you know of a way to clean the ponds or if you'd rather see a remodel of the Capitol grounds. Anything would be an improvement. Send your ideas by June 16 to: brainstorm@starbulletin.com Or by mail: Brainstorm! c/o Nancy Christenson Star-Bulletin 500 Ala Moana 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210 Honolulu, Hawaii 96813 Or by fax: Brainstorm! c/o Nancy Christenson 529-4750