Talk Story
Who’s in charge
of public schools?
It’s not the BOETALK ABOUT stress. Why would anybody want to be on the Hawaii Board of Education?
Years ago, then-Superintendent Charles Toguchi drew us a Department of Education organization chart. The DOE and his office was the bull's-eye in the middle. Arranged in a circle with one-way arrows pointing inward were the powers he reported to: the governor, the school board, the House, the Senate, the Department of Accounting and General Services, the U.S. Department of Education, the courts.
The BOE is like that, too. They're getting it these days from both candidates for governor, candidates for every other office, churches, parents, the unions, the feds, the courts, Congress and the Legislature.
Yup, as they say, opinions about fixing public schools are like okoles. Everybody's got one.
"All the legislators, up and down, show their ignorance of the system," former BOE member Garrett Toguchi, who is brave enough to run again for an at-large seat. "Every Tom, Dick and Harry has a plan."
"If I have to listen to Fred Hemmings 'dis' the public school system one more time, I'm going to take him out," agrees BOE at-large candidate Shannon Wood.
Only one BOE candidate Star-Bulletin editors met with this week, Marla Wade, favored vouchers for students opting for private school. On the other hand, all backed charter schools. Several said charter school finances needed better oversight, however, and that they need some fine-tuning before more charters are granted.
How schools are funded is the root cause of many public school problems, the candidates agreed. The DOE is the largest single piece of the state budget, but it comes with strings attached.
"Just allocate the money and let the BOE and DOE manage it," Toguchi says.
"The governor and the Legislature keep pulling and pushing," says Breene Harimoto, who's running for the Leeward District seat. "Give us a lump sum."
Without more autonomy, the system lacks accountability, the candidates maintain. Everybody blames the BOE and DOE but they don't control the budget.
Lobbying, therefore, is a big part of the job. Veteran board member Karen Knudsen says everyone on the BOE will have to get down to the Legislature next session and work the chambers. As Wood puts it: "76 egos need to be massaged."
BOE candidates are, at best, lukewarm to Linda Lingle's proposal to break up the system into seven districts with seven independent boards. Randall Yee, an attorney who also ran for the board in 2000 and is trying for an at-large seat again, says he wants to see if a break-up would save money. If it would, he'd back it.
Save money? Wood says there's no way.
"We'd have seven secretaries, seven CEOs, and we'd still need a statewide board," she says, rolling her eyes.
Toguchi says he fears the one-man, one-vote requirement could force districts to be of equal population size, which could mean multi-island canoe districts like some in the Legislature.
Knudsen and Harimoto agree that with the single statewide board people often don't know the candidates they are electing to the BOE. It's a problem.
"It diminishes the value of the board," Harimoto says.
STILL, having at-large seats is good because BOE members elected at-large "aren't fixated on bringing home the bacon to a home district," Knudsen says.
BOE candidates aren't well known simply because the board lacks authority, Yee says.
"You don't have any power, so people don't pay attention," he says. "Give us the power to tax and people will pay attention."
Toguchi wouldn't go that far, but he does feel that without budgeting authority the BOE can't be held responsible for the school system.
When everybody's in charge, nobody is.
John Flanagan is the Star-Bulletin's contributing editor.
He can be reached at: jflanagan@starbulletin.com.