Failed education bill
leaves supporters frustrated

The reform would have put more
control in local communities

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By B.J. Reyes
Associated Press

The sudden defeat of a measure that would have let voters decide the fate of the state Board of Education has some lawmakers wondering whether reform might ever come to Hawaii's statewide public education system.

Both the House and Senate approved measures that would have replaced the centralized state board with locally elected district boards. The House had proposed 15 districts; the Senate suggested seven.

But the proposal -- which would have required a constitutional amendment subject to voter ratification -- was deferred by Senate members in a legislative conference committee last week, effectively killing the bill.

"If you look on the surface, it's hard to see what's changed," said House Minority Leader Rep. Galen Fox, (R, Waikiki). "The Senate was committed to big change, the House was committed to big change.

"It just seems to be a part of a process in which you promise reform and you make the people think reform is coming and then at the end, when the crunch really comes and you're going to have to cast your vote to really change the way Hawaii is run, you can't do it. You back off, and you keep things the way they are."

Sen. Norman Sakamoto, the conference committee's Senate co-chairman, said the proposal never had the complete backing of all senators, many of whom agreed to pass the measure along only to keep debate alive on education reform.

Sakamoto (D, Moanalua-Salt Lake) instead suggested that a task force study various education reform measures and report back to next year's Legislature with recommendations.

Some statutory changes also could be made to try and bring the state's 13 elected school board members closer and more in touch with communities, he said.

Critics say the state board has simply become too large a bureaucracy and through its electoral process has become disconnected from the communities it is supposed to serve.

"The feeling on Molokai and Lanai is, Out of sight, out of mind. We're always the last on the list to get anything, and the system is so lacking, there's not enough support from the administration," said Rep. Ron Davis (R, Lahaina-Molokai-Lanai). "This really frustrates all my teacher friends. They would like to see more local support, more control at the local level."

The Hawaii State Teachers Association President opposes the dissolution of the school board, saying policies for Hawaii's students should be implemented statewide.

But even Karen Ginoza, the union's president, said she hears the criticism.

"For example, a board member who lives on Kauai must still represent all of the neighbor islands. Likewise, someone from the Big Island must represent all the neighbor islands," Ginoza said. "That is very difficult for the people to know who to talk to, who's representing them."

Ginoza said she supports a comprehensive study of all education reform measures to try and fix the problem.

"We really need to study how do we keep what is good and yet change in order to reflect the needs of our people," she said.

Donna Higashi, a teacher at Royal School in Honolulu, also supports a statewide school board but said she also hopes for meaningful reform recommendations from a task force study.

"If you just do it (implement policies) by complexes or districts, it's going to dilute the strong system of the state of Hawaii," Higashi sad. "I think policies should be universal for everyone vs. this one district vs. another."

Rep. Ken Ito, the House Education Committee chairman and conference committee House co-chairman, said he was disappointed by the reform bill's demise.

"Let the public decide if they want to go with elected local district school boards or not," he said. "We worked hard for about nine months to one year, and to come to the last minute -- I had no indication that they weren't going with that bill.

"A lot of the members were disappointed."

But Ito (D, Kaneohe) said he still believes real reforms could come about.

"You can never tell because anything can happen over here," he said.

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