Candidates square off Nancy Cullen still has callouses from helping build the playground at her daughter's school six years ago.
on state of isle schools
Gubernatorial hopefuls share their views
at a PTSA-sponsored forumBy Crystal Kua
ckua@starbulletin.com"It's a lot of blood, sweat and tears and a lot of money out of our PTA, and we had very little support from the state on it," said Cullen, whose daughter attended Aikahi Elementary.
So when someone mentions education as an issue, Cullen listens. She attended a forum for gubernatorial candidates last night sponsored by the Hawaii State Parent Teacher Student Association.
"I think there are going to be a lot of changes happening in the next few years," Cullen said. "I think it's a time of real change, and I think we need a strong leader. I think our questions are more pointed than, What are you going to do with education?"
The forum showed the different views that front-runners Democrat Mazie Hirono and Republican Linda Lingle have on Hawaii's public schools.
"I am passionate about making the public schools in Hawaii better, and in order to do that, we have to admit that we are not doing well," Lingle said. "I believe we can get it turned around, but it starts with recognizing that we've got some serious challenges."
Lingle noted Hawaii is the only state with a centralized education department and that principals here are unionized.
"I think those two differences really set us apart in a negative way, and it shows up in the results," she said. "We need more choice, we need charter schools, we need to support the home-schooling movement and we need vocational and technical high schools."
Hirono said she does not think public schools are an embarrassment.
"The fact is that Hawaii's schools are not at the bottom in every test score, and this constant bashing of our school system -- which really translates into bashing our teachers, our schools, our parents, our students most of all -- is not the positive way that we are going to make the changes that we need to make," she said.
Hirono said Hawaii has to lose the attitude that it is the nation's worst. She noted the push to renovate aging public schools as an example of work being done to improve things.
Both Hirono and Lingle say they support a constitutional amendment that would allow the issuance of special-purpose bonds to help finance construction of private-school classrooms. They said the funding would help run-down private schools while not taking money away from public schools.
Also taking part in the forum were nonpartisan Jim Brewer, Libertarian Tracy Ryan and Free Energy candidate Daniel Cunningham.
