Price of Paradise feedback
Voter education, no; Lingle probe, yes
Requests for funds to educate voters about changes caused by redistricting were refused because there is not enough money in the state budget.Governor Cayetano, however, pays state department heads to attempt to find flaws in Republican gubernatorial candidate Linda Lingle's plan for the future. He suddenly feels that it is his responsibility to spend government funds to share information with the public.
Sheila Leas
Who is filling Lingle's campaign war chest?
Linda Lingle has a multimillion-dollar campaign chest. Perhaps she would be willing to tell the public what fraction of this money is from private donations from citizens of Hawaii. Then we could better judge whether the "new beginning" she wants for us is being supported by Hawaii's citizens or by mainland political and corporate interests who think they know what is best for Hawaii.The message sent by Lingle's millions of dollars is that Hawaii and the nation are in bad need of campaign finance reform.
David Roach
Kapaa, Kauai
Governor hurts his party's efforts
Governor Cayetano has finally gone too far in his attempt to discredit Linda Lingle by having state workers analyze her campaign plan.This is another bad decision in a long line of bad decisions. For other candidates to not only condone it, but endorse it is unbelievable. It gives the incumbent party another advantage because its people are doing the "analysis."
It is time for a change.
Robert Peterson
Nab other nuisances along with loud birds
Some may view the Honolulu Police Department's policy concerning the handling of crowing roosters to be a waste of officers' time. Not necessarily.Many of those who have these nuisance animals in urban settings also are involved in the "ice" business, burglary, selling of stolen property, violations of parole and other crimes against Hawaii residents. When these birds go off at 2:30 a.m., I'm all for HPD making unannounced visits to these dwellings and cleaning house.
It ain't just about chickens.
Kevin Gagan
Mililani
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The Price of Paradise appears each week in the Sunday Insight section. The mission of POP is to contribute lively and informed dialog about public issues, particularly those having to do with our pocketbooks. Reader responses appear later in the week. If you have thoughts to share about today's POP articles, please send them, with your name and daytime phone number, to pop@starbulletin.com, or write to Price of Paradise, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210, 500 Ala Moana, Honolulu, HI 96813.
John Flanagan
Contributing EditorNO CHILD LEFT BEHIND
BOE policies unfair to charter schools
Forced by the state Legislature into supporting charter schools, Board of Education members seem to delight in denying them funds.Charter schools receive no funds to transport students. This makes it hard to attract students whose parents cannot drive them to school.
Charter school funding is based on the number of students enrolled, so with fewer students, they get less money.
Now the board, in a reluctant response to the federal "No Child Left Behind" law (Insight, July 28), says charter schools will get more students, and will bus them, too. Great. But the board has cleverly arranged it so that not a nickel more will go to charter schools (or any other schools) for these new students.
A more equitable approach, would be to adjust funding for adjusted student bodies. All funding for the entire school year is based, at present, on how many students are attending on one given day at the start of the school year -- and the board has decided that no student shall opt out of his or her "failing" school until after this day has passed.
The money should follow the students, not reward the "failing" schools.
Ted Pirsig
Volcano, Hawaii
New law deprives high achievers
The new "No Child Left Behind" policies being implemented in our state troubles me. Hawaii's public schools are failing, but allowing students to transfer out of failing schools is not the solution.By transferring underachieving students, the state neglects one of its most valuable resources: the overachievers. While the current provisions of the NCLB program would allow failing students to transfer out of failing schools and provide funding in the fourth year for tutoring, the students in the failing schools who want to achieve more and learn more will be intellectually stunted.
Obviously, allowing both over- and underachievers to transfer out of failing schools would leave them empty.
To solve our education problem, measures must be taken to ensure that each student may live up to his or her full potential. If this means a complete overhaul of our education system, so be it.
Adam K. Maruyama
Student
GASOLINE PRICE CAP
Fesharaki is off base on gasoline costs
Fereidun Fesharaki, in his dissertation on the "high price" of gasoline (Price of Paradise, Insight, July 14), implies that the people of Hawaii are not being ripped off "except by those who have made this an emotional issue and a source of business for themselves." He says we should not complain because people in Europe are paying twice as much, $4 to $5 per gallon. That's like saying the Chinese in China should not complain because the same food in Hawaii costs four times higher. Apparently $225 million a year over the national average or $600 per registered driver is "chicken feed" to the professor sitting in the ivory think tank at the East-West Center.Fesharaki was not entirely correct in some of his statement.
Pacific Resources Inc. sold the company including the refinery to BHP-Australia because of the lucrative price offered. BHP did not have a marketing arm for its crude and sought in 1987 to acquire a company such as PRI. Its overpayment for it is the primary reason BHP sold it at a loss.
Fesharaki summarizes: "Because we import crude and whenever tanker prices increase so does the price of gasoline and not so on the West Coast; because of the efficient pipe line distribution systems." If this is true, why doesn't Chevron import product from the West Coast?
Aloha Petroleum proved the point by importing gasoline from refineries in Singapore and Korea and has historically under-priced the two refineries. It currently costs about $0.07 per gallon to ship gasoline to Hawaii, about the same as for crude oil. In fact, as Aloha's market grew, Chevron, rather than exporting its production, became a supplier of Aloha at import competitive prices.
Howard J.T. Lee
Retired energy company executive
Fuel-efficiency cures high gas prices
The Star-Bulletin presented nice commentaries on a gasoline price cap (Price of Paradise, Insight, July 14). The price of gas will stay high as long as we continue to drive these gas-guzzling SUVs or "Such Unproductive Vehicles," and monster-size pickups.It seems as if no one is interested in driving the now extinct Geo Metro. Most of us drive alone and haul very little or nothing. I get 57 mpg with my Geo. I am not complaining about the price of gas. It would have to increase to $5 a gallon before I feel the pinch.
Everyone, including me, would like to pay less for gas, but if we insist on driving low- mileage vehicles, we deserve to pay the high price for gas. In any business, when demand in there, prices are raised.
Until we in Hawaii are willing to put away our low self-esteem, show-off, gas-guzzlers and get serious about conserving gas, we deserve to pay high prices. If the only way to make us drive more fuel-efficient vehicles is to raise the price of gas, I am for it. The guzzlers will feel the pinch first.
Michael Nomura
BOTTLE BILL
Merchants want profit, not responsibility
Regarding Price of Paradise, Insight, July 21: Retail Merchants of Hawaii members want to profit from the products they sell, but they don't want to be responsible for dealing with the litter and waste their products cause after they've left the store? Sounds like the typical corporate greed that's rampant these days.The bottle bill is making more and more sense to me.
Shaunti Kiehl
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