MARITIME laws more than two centuries old have effectively protected America's domestic shipping industry but now limit Hawaii's tourism potential. Governor Cayetano is calling for an exemption from what is generally called the Jones Act to allow foreign-built cruise ships to be used for inter-island tours. Such a limited exemption could benefit Hawaii without affecting the shipping industry. Isle cruises should be
free from Jones ActThe issue: Gov. Cayetano proposes to
exempt Hawaii cruises from
some federal restrictions.Foreign companies have played a vital role in Hawaii's tourism for decades through the acquisition of hotels and restaurants. Antiquated laws should not be used to hamper what are essentially floating hotels and restaurants.
The Jones Act limits shipping between U.S. ports to ships that are built, owned and registered in the United States, and with American crews. A provision enacted in 1886 included passenger ships, at a time when ships were a mode of passenger transportation.
Hawaii's growing cruise tourism received a setback when American Classic Voyages Inc. went bankrupt in October, ending its ms Patriot and SS Independence cruises. The Jones Act's passenger provision was aimed partly at protecting the U.S. shipbuilding industry, but the bankruptcy resulted in cancellation of orders for what would have been the first two American-made cruise ships in nearly a half century.
Norwegian Star launched its Hawaii inter-island cruise Sunday and plans to add a second vessel next year. However, it will have to include a stop at Fanning Island, a Republic of Kiribati island 600 miles south of Hawaii, to avoid regulations of domestic cruises.
Cayetano, who has opposed rescinding the Jones Act, says he now supports an exemption for foreign-built cruise ships to operate in Hawaii and Alaska. That alone will not help Norwegian Star or other ships that are foreign-owned with foreign crews.
"If you try to open it up too big, you just generate opposition," Cayetano told newspaper editors from Maui and the Big Island this week, "so perhaps if Alaska is willing to go along with this, then perhaps a special exemption for Alaska and Hawaii" could lead to further changes.
Alaska may not want to go along; cruise ships easily include a Vancouver stop on that state's ocean tours, thus qualifying them as foreign trips unaffected by the Jones Act. Cayetano's proposal could be seen as boosting direct competition for Alaska's prosperous cruise industry.
After nearly a year of debate and political wrangling, Congress has approved President Bush's signature education bill. Now comes the hard part. The federal government must explain to state and school districts what the law requires. At the same time, school officials will have to puzzle through the law's array of accountability measures, reconcile them with existing programs or create new ones to meet the conditions. Even though Congress has authorized $26.5 billion in spending, whether it actually allocates the money to local systems will remain a year-by-year challenge. Long road ahead for
school officialsThe issue: Adhering to the new education
law will be difficult for Hawaii's schools.In setting general standards to encompass schools across the nation, the law presents specific problems for Hawaii. For example, it requires that school districts submit "report cards" that compare their student test scores to those in other systems in the same state. However, Hawaii, which has a statewide school system, has no others with which to compare scores.
Another requirement is that scores between white and minority students be equalized. Defining minorities among Hawaii's multi-ethnic population will be confounding and setting scores among Caucasians as an achievement has dubious merit.
The intricacies of the law are sure to add more red tape to Hawaii's already layered bureaucracy. For example, if scores at a particular school fail to improve over a period of time, the law says parents of low-income students can get money for tutoring or for transporting their children to other public schools. Sorting out how parents apply for the grants, how much would be given, which schools would absorb more students, who would qualify tutors and transportation services as well as the legal liabilities that would be placed on the state will be an enormous undertaking.
The law allows churches or other religious groups to provide tutoring and after-school programs. How the state will determine which groups would be contracted to deal out such services could become a legal nightmare. Further, how would the state keep track of the curriculum these groups deliver and how much of the state's intrusion in instruction would these groups tolerate?
In a capitulation to Bush's conservative agenda, the law would deny federal funds to any school system that discriminates against Boy Scouts and other similar groups that bar homosexuals from their memberships. There is no place in federal law for such a convoluted defense of bias.
Few would dispute that education in America needs improving. However, policy makers in Washington cannot simply set the agenda and leave local officials to cope with it. Congress and the president must provide the funds they will need or the expectations for education reform will wither.
Published by Oahu Publications Inc., a subsidiary of Black Press.Don Kendall, Publisher
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