[ OUR OPINION ]
STATE lawmakers don't seem inclined to move ahead this session on Governor Lingle's desire to overhaul school governance and create at least seven district education boards, but that should not discourage Lingle from pursuing her goal if she believes it will improve student learning. Governor should appoint
commission to flesh out
plan for 7 school boards
THE ISSUE The governor's plan to decentralize the school system is stalled in the Legislature.
The change would require a constitutional amendment and the governor wants the issue placed before voters in November 2004. However, Lingle has not made clear how decentralizing governance will mend what she calls a "broken" education system and how it connects with the classroom. Election-year terms like "accountability" and "autonomy" first need to be translated into real-world structures. With the help of a commission or working group that includes all interested parties, Lingle may be able to formulate a blueprint that will result in a transformation of a struggling school system into one that provides children the best education tax dollars can buy.
A good argument for district boards is that they would be more accessible to parents and others concerned about education and would give them stronger voices -- home rule for education.
With that, however, comes a reorganization of the Department of Education. This is a difficult undertaking for it involves myriad issues each board would have to manage. Among them are hiring and firing of administrators, preparing budgets, allocating money for teacher and staff salaries, buying and delivering goods and services, meeting federal mandates, setting priorities for building new facilities and repairing and maintaining existing ones, instituting educational policies and programs and hundreds of other issues already identified and hundreds more unanticipated.
While each board shapes its system, a statewide board and a state superintendent would have to fold it in with those from other boards into a coherent, equitable program -- a dizzying endeavor. This is not to say it can't and shouldn't be done, but such a complex venture must be meticulously examined and executed.
A bill outlining Lingle's proposal appears stalled in the Senate as lawmakers see no urgency to push it forward until next year's election. Testimony on the bill has been generally unfavorable as can be expected when it comes from those who run the present system.
Lingle, who has been on the job for only 12 weeks, should use the time between now and the next legislative session to work out the nitty-gritty of her education reform plan, open the discussion to the public, bat around ideas and solutions and draft a consensus on how things would work. Then voters will have a clear strategy on which to vote in 2004.
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ONLY months after pulling military advisers out of the southern Philippines at what should have been the completion of an operation against Muslim extremists, the Pentagon is dispatching troops back to the island jungles, this time as combat forces, to finish the job. The United States must take care in handling the assignment in order to conform with Philippine constitutional restrictions, dodge political entanglements and avoid being drawn into strictly domestic strife. U.S. troops in Philippines
must stick to the mission
THE ISSUE The U.S. is sending troops to the Philippines to fight extremists with ties to al-Qaida.
President Bush sent U.S. troops on a six-month assignment a year ago to help the Philippine government combat Abu Sayyaf, an extremist Muslim group with ties to al-Qaida. The group, whose chief activity has been kidnapping for ransom, is believed to have dwindled from 1,000 to fewer than 50 at one time. But a series of attacks in October, including two bombings, showed that the violent group, now estimated to number 250, has not disbanded.
The State Department identified Abu Sayyaf as a terrorist group six years ago, after Osama bin Laden sent a brother-in-law to coordinate with the group. The Philippine government recently expelled an Iraqi diplomatic official, claiming to have evidence that he had received phone calls from Abu Sayyaf figures.
The Philippine constitution forbids foreign troops from engaging in unilateral combat, but the United States satisfied that ban last year by restricting troops to an advisory role on the island of Basilan. The Pentagon says the 1,700 Marines and ground troops assigned this time to the Sulu Province, where Abu Sayyaf has relocated, will comply technically by playing a supporting role in the Philippine operation.
Bin Laden's attempt to arrange a merger of Abu Sayyaf and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, a 12,500-member separatist organization based on Mindanao, is believed to have failed. U.S. troops have a legitimate purpose in fighting Abu Sayyaf as part of the war against terrorism. They should not be drawn into the growing civil conflict with the Islamic Front, which has no known terrorism ties.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ordered an attack this month on an enclave of Islamic Front guerrillas. Fighting Muslim extremists is politically popular in the Philippines, but Arroyo is above allegations of politicking in this area, having announced that she will not run for re-election. Instead, Defense Minister Angelo Reyes can be expected to use military operations for political advantage in his 2004 presidential bid unless Arroyo reins him in.
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Published by Oahu Publications Inc., a subsidiary of Black Press.Don Kendall, Publisher
Frank Bridgewater, Editor 529-4791; fbridgewater@starbulletin.com
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Lucy Young-Oda, Assistant Editor 529-4762; lyoungoda@starbulletin.comMary Poole, Editorial Page Editor, 529-4748; mpoole@starbulletin.com
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