Lingle fails to revive
plan for 7 school boards

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By Susan Essoyan
sessoyan@starbulletin.com

Despite a personal appeal from Gov. Linda Lingle to revive her plan for locally elected school boards, senators say many questions still need to be answered before it moves forward.

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Lingle urged the Senate Education Committee yesterday to gut a competing House bill that would set up 15 advisory councils to oversee clusters of schools, saying it represented no real change because the councils would be appointed by the state Board of Education.

"If the current structure could have been effective, it would have been over the years," Lingle said. "It seems to me that this is important enough that the people should decide."

She asked senators to replace the language in the bill, HB 289, with her proposed constitutional amendment for seven locally elected boards. But the committee deferred decision-making on the bill until Monday.

Committee Chairman Norman Sakamoto (D, Salt Lake-Foster Village) said after the hearing that the committee wants to work out the details of how the process would work before putting the question of restructuring the school system to voters.

"She's saying, 'Have the people vote now, and there will be time to work out the details later,'" he said. "We're saying, 'Let's continue working out the details and then vote later.'"

The Board of Education and Schools Superintendent Patricia Hamamoto testified yesterday in favor of the House bill, along with the Hawaii Business Roundtable.

The bill was opposed by the Hawaii State Teachers Association and several individuals, including school board member Laura Thielen. She urged the committee to create small school districts, saying studies show they improve student performance, especially among low-income children.

The Senate has approved a different bill, SB 667, to create seven regional education agencies, governed by appointed boards.

It would change the makeup of the school board to include seven members elected from the seven school districts, with another six members appointed by the governor.

Sen. Gary Hooser (D, Kauai-Niihau) asked the governor whether she would support that bill if the regional boards were elected, and Lingle responded that it would be a move "in the right direction."

"We're still working on it," Sakamoto said after the hearing. "We're listening."