Schools offer option to lousy public ed
The Department of Education wants to "lower the educational proficiency bar" in Hawaii's public schools. Very soon they will have to start digging a hole so that the lowering bar has a place to go. This is indeed a very "grave" situation.On the other hand, the Kamehameha Schools are striving to keep the bar high, so that the qualified attending Hawaiian students can rightfully and proudly continue to hold their heads high. Heaven help them!
Kailua
Properly inflated tires will save gasoline
Your Aug. 17 editorial on the pain of high gasoline prices missed probably the easiest step most people can take: Check your tires for proper inflation. When tires are properly inflated, you use less gasoline, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and provide a safer ride.According to the U.S. Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Agency, inflating tires properly can improve gas mileage by 3.3 percent, saving a nickel or more per gallon. Other estimates of improved fuel efficiency are even higher.
In fact, if all U.S. drivers used proper inflation, we could save about two million gallons of gasoline per day! About 70 percent of cars and light trucks are estimated to have at least one tire that is improperly inflated.
Check pressure, even in the spare, once a month when tires are cold, since hot tires can raise the reading. Fill to the ideal pressure recommended by the dealer, not the maximum sometimes shown on the tire wall.
Whether you drive a Prius or a Hummer, you should want the improved safety and gasoline efficiency that come with properly inflated tires. For more information on improving fuel economy, visit www.fueleconomy.gov.
Senior communications consultant
Hawaiian Electric Company
Better conditions help ease teacher shortage
It is great news for Hawaii that the DOE is having more success this year recruiting teachers to teach in our public schools. The ongoing teacher shortage Hawaii has suffered in recent years makes it difficult for our schoolchildren to improve their academic achievement.The higher salaries and improved working conditions in that contract have been a major tool in building a solid base of qualified teachers. Our new contract has produced salaries that are more competitive with mainland and private school pay, and has helped attract teachers from both Hawaii and the mainland to our public schools. The new contract has also encouraged some of our most experienced teachers to extend their time in the classroom. This is good news for Hawaii's children.
We are taking steps toward easing the teacher shortage, but we should not take this as a sign to relax our efforts. We need to maintain our support for the hard work our dedicated teachers are doing each day.
President
Hawaii State Teachers Association
Iraq war immunizes grieving mother
No one can win an argument against a grieving mother, not even the president of the United States. No one should.The torrents of tears of a mother's pain for the loss of a child mock the assertion that there are issues of greater consequences. Yet terrorists cannot have a free hand to take incalculable lives, to disrupt a nation's economy and to destroy the freedoms of a country. What stands between a nation and annihilation has always been the blood of heroes. Heroes are borne of mothers. How do we preserve a nation to save a mother?
Kaneohe, Hawaii
Algae importation had to be exposed
Bravo! to Stewart Yerton for his Aug. 3 article about the Hawaii Board of Agriculture's violation of the Hawaii Environmental Policy Act. The people of Hawaii need to know what's going on behind closed bureaucratic doors.Allowing Mera Pharmaceuticals to import algae that is genetically engineered to grow experimental drugs without doing an Environmental Impact Study is criminal. And in outdoor containers -- with taxpayers' money, no less! Anyone else seeing the red flags here?
Makawao, Maui
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