GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM Improving the state education system was the main topic at a forum last week at the Japanese Cultural Center for candidates for lieutenant governor. From left, candidates Matt Matsunaga, James Aiona, Kenneth Vaughan, Michael Medeiros and Renee Ing turned their attention to fellow competitor Dalton Tanonaka as he gave his views.

Candidates lay out
proposals for schools

Plans by candidates for
lieutenant governor include
raising taxes and decentralization

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By Crystal Kua
ckua@starbulletin.com

Hotel room taxes transformed into classroom dollars. Schools, not the bureaucracy, get more power. Teachers get the tools to do what they do best -- teach.

These were among the solutions to bolster the state's education system from candidates last week at the first lieutenant governor's forum of the political season sponsored by the Young Business Roundtable and Hawaii Business magazine.

Participating were Democrats Clayton Hee and Matt Matsunaga; Republicans James "Duke" Aiona, Cam Cavasso and Dalton Tanonaka; Libertarian Kenneth Vaughan; and Independents Renee Ing and Michael Medeiros. Democratic candidate Donna Ikeda had a prior commitment and did not attend. All have filed nomination papers to run.

Some candidates have suggested the future lieutenant governor could continue to work on education initiatives on behalf of the governor. Past lieutenant governors have carried out the A+ afterschool program and the Pre-plus preschool program.

Hee, an Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustee and former state lawmaker, proposed improving education by tacking 0.5 percent onto the 7.25 percent transient accommodations tax.

"A lot of this esoteric discussion cannot occur unless financing is available," said Hee, a former public schoolteacher.

After the forum, Hee said his proposal would generate about $15 million annually, money that the Department of Education and the University of Hawaii could split.

"See if you can get more use out of those funds," he said.

Ing said she and her running mate and husband Jim Brewer have a plan to bring in a half-billion dollars to education annually. "We can create this so that it would mostly be ... getting it from the tourists and from the very high-income people," she said.

But Vaughan, a retired Pearl Harbor engineer, disagreed.

"Throwing money at (the public schools) is not the answer," he said. "We should put the schools back into the county because it's too big an operation and it's too spread-out for the state to run."

Matsunaga, currently a state senator, was among those who want to bring decision-making closer to the schools.

"We need to get back to the ABCs," or A for accountability, B for better buildings and C for local control," he said.

Cavasso also called for decentralization of the Board of Education.

"We should be encouraging decision-making at the lowest possible level," he said.

Several candidates said teachers should be given the appropriate tools, classroom environment and paychecks.

"Stop blaming the teachers," said Medeiros, an engineer who works for the Department of Transportation. "We want our best and our brightest to go into teaching, and that's not going to happen if we're sitting here blaming the public school teachers for all the problems that's wrong with the public schools."

Tanonaka, a former CNN anchorman who covered Asia, said the lieutenant governor can become the champion of UH both here and abroad.

"You have the lieutenant governor, the No. 2 person in the state, going along on a mission with the president of the University of Hawaii -- that says a lot to Asian leaders and Asian people who want to invest and send their kids here," he said.

Aiona, a former state judge, said UH should continue to be autonomous to spark economic growth in the state.

"The University of Hawaii needs to maintain its independence in regards to its fiscal ability, to raise and develop its research department and also its curriculum," he said. "The university has proven that it has the capability of being an economic engine."