Lawmakers consider
breaking up
‘Soviet’ DOE

Overhauling the board ranks
near the top of the legislative agenda

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By Crystal Kua
ckua@starbulletin.com

An educator once described Hawaii's public school system as "a Soviet Union of an educational system," because it is often perceived as being top- down and highly centralized.

As the state Legislature opens this week, lawmakers say the time is ripe to overhaul the Department of Education's governance, to get schools out of an educational rut.

Democrats and Republicans look to loosen control from on high and move power closer to where learning occurs: the schools.

"We can actually transform our schools by changing some of the laws and some of the ways we've been doing business as usual," Senate Education Chairman Norman Sakamoto (D, Moanalua) said. "It's more right to do something now than it was a few years ago."

House Education Chairman Ken Ito (D, Kaneohe) said the current governance system is not in sync with a new accountability system that is being designed.

Some of the ideas being floated include eliminating or changing the function of the Board of Education, letting the governor appoint the superintendent of schools, and creating school boards or advisory councils that would oversee complexes -- high schools and their feeder schools -- or clusters of complexes.

"I feel that it will be a welcome change," Ito said. "We've been hearing reports every time ... that we have one of the worst school systems in the nation, and we're real frustrated here at the Legislature because we put in money in the system. We tend not to micromanage, but now I think we have to step in and make a drastic change overall."

Ito said a bill being drafted will provide a framework for proposed governance changes, while legislative hearings will better define the restructuring. Amendments to the state Constitution would likely be needed, meaning voters will likely have the final say.

Lawmakers are looking at models in studies on educational governance done by the University of Hawaii and Harvard University as well as a 1992 report by the Task Force on Educational Governance, headed by then-Lt. Gov. Ben Cayetano.

David Ericson, professor and chairman of the UH College of Education's Educational Foundations Department, said educators, parents and local communities have had little to say in educational matters, but that is where the decisions should be made.

"You can't mandate from on high on what really matters in education," he said.

Ericson's advocates loosening the centralized controls and allowing individuals closer to the schools to make more decisions.

"We now have a Soviet Union of an educational system that cannot work," Ericson wrote in a policy paper.

Ericson envisions each complex with its own board that is elected from its communities. The boards, which would hire a complex headmaster, would be given the authority and money to make the decisions that would be in their best interest.

The state office function would not include dictating what is taught in the classroom -- that would be left up to the schools and complexes --- but would be confined to statewide duties like formulating the department budget.

His scenario also has the Department of Education with its own legal affairs department separate from the state Attorney General's Office.

The state superintendent and Board of Education would remain, but in a limited function, including reconstituting failing schools or complexes, Ericson said.

A requirement for being on the Board of Education would be service on a complex board. The superintendent would be removed from the governor's Cabinet and report to the board. "Right now, the superintendent serves too many masters," he said.

The most talked about "what if" of the proposal: What if the elected Board of Education is eliminated? "The governor is ultimately responsible, no matter what, for our education system," Ito said. "We see that we have to do something ... because the culture of the DOE has to be transformed."

House Minority Leader Galen Fox (R, Waikiki) said Republicans will continue to push for decentralization through the establishment of seven local schools boards to correspond with the current seven school districts. Each school board would then hire its own superintendent.

A state superintendent would still be needed, but in a more limited capacity, Fox suggested. "The superintendent worries about things like accountability, measuring school performance. All the basic school decisions are at the local school board level."

Fox wants to see details of the Democrats' proposal before pronouncing whether the GOP would support it.

"If they take the real authority to the schools, to the lower level, that would be an important step forward, and we would applaud such a change," Fox said. "I know that they are considering some real reforms, and we just have to wait to see."

Voters have previously said "no" to having the governor appoint the school board.

The chairman of the Board of Education questions whether student learning would benefit by the proposed changes.

"I don't think it's time for changing just for the heck of changing," Board of Education Chairman Herbert Watanabe said.

"Why not allow (Superintendent Pat) Hamamoto do the things she wants to do and see if it's going to work?"

The school board has approved Hamamoto's plans to restructure the current school districts into smaller administrative units made up of a cluster of two to three school complexes with a superintendent overseeing each cluster.

Watanabe said the nationwide trend is toward centralizing school operations, with Hawaii's single statewide district being looked at as a model. "Nationwide, the districts have failed to do a good job, and the state is taking over."

Everyone agrees, however, that the state should continue to allocate money to schools, which is one of the strongest pluses for a centralized system because it provides for financial equity among schools.

Watanabe said that getting rid of the Board of Education and establishing dozens of school boards would be unmanageable, and the formation in the past of school advisory councils in each district did not work.

Some also question whether this year's elections -- in which all legislative seats would be up for election -- may have something to do with the lawmakers' motives and whether they can get anything passed.

But Sakamoto acknowledged, "It won't be a quick fix."