[ LEGISLATURE SESSION 2004 ]
DEAN SENSUI / DSENSUI@STARBULLETIN.COM
Flowers and festivity filled the Senate chambers during yesterday's opening of the state Legislature.
Ready for
businessA unified message on taxes,
education and the "ice" battle
opens the session
The Legislature's Democratic leaders and Republican Gov. Linda Lingle are starting to find that they agree on ways to improve education and battle drugs.
Lingle, in reaction to the Legislature's opening-day speeches, also found agreement with an announcement from House Democrats that they would oppose a tax increase.
Star-Bulletin Legislature Database
Star-Bulletin Legislature Guide
(PDF, 2.4 MB)
State Legislature: Bills
& Hawaii Revised Statutes
"We will have to live within our means, and that is a message that we have communicated since the first day we got here," Lingle said.
Both Lingle and the lawmakers support decentralizing the state's school system and creating a "balanced" approach to tackle the state's crystal methamphetamine epidemic.
The degree of agreement even extends to the usual rivalries between the House and Senate.
Yesterday, House Speaker Calvin Say and Senate President Robert Bunda ticked off similar problems and solutions in their opening-day speeches, and today they are expected to unveil proposals supported by House and Senate Democrats.
Both favored strong action by the state to handle the growing problem of crystal methamphetamine addiction in Hawaii, both pledged to work to reform education, and both men downplayed Lingle's strong support for local school boards.
House Vice Speaker Sylvia Luke (D, Pacific Heights-Punchbowl) said the collaboration between the House and Senate on their majority packages was not a concerted Democratic effort to put up a united front against a Republican governor heading into this year's elections.
"We all know what the big issues are: education reform, crystal meth, high (prescription) drug prices. So it's not a surprise that these are the issues that are priorities of the House and Senate," Luke said.
Rep. Marilyn Lee (D, Mililani-Mililani Mauka) added: "We also have been listening to what the communities have been saying. And that's what they're talking about out in the community."
Lingle praised her own summer of community task force and "talk story" meetings as reflective of community concerns.
DEAN SENSUI / DSENSUI@STARBULLETIN.COM
Kaulana Kanno, 3, below, beamed up at her mom, Lorrie, during the morning session as Sen. Brian Kanno sat to their left.
Regarding the plans to combat crystal meth, or "ice," Lingle said both she and legislators favor "a balanced package of prevention, law enforcement and education to make certain we make progress."
The governor did object, however, to Rep. Scott Saiki's speech demanding action on the native Hawaiian sovereignty bill stalled in Congress.
Saiki, House majority leader, said the bill was "stalled in the White House."
"Native Hawaiians can no longer wait," said Saiki (Moiliili-McCully). "So we simply say this: 'President Bush, sign that bill.'"
Lingle said Saiki's characterization was incorrect and likely to cause trouble.
"I don't know if Scott Saiki purposely put out false information or if he just is not aware of the Akaka bill," Lingle said.
Noting that the bill is still in the U.S. Senate, Lingle said she and Hawaii's Democratic senators have worked to move the bill in Congress.
"I think the remark made today, especially because it is a false remark, really hurts our efforts to maintain a bipartisan effort," Lingle said.
Saiki defended his remark, saying: "It's well known that the Bush administration is opposed to affirmative action and minority rights.
"If he endorsed the Akaka bill, it would sail through Congress. He is opposed to it and that's why it has languished."
Not mentioned by legislators yesterday, but clearly a matter of concern for Lingle, are the ongoing negotiations with the 23,000-member Hawaii Government Employees Association.
Legislators changed the law last year to require that HGEA and the state go to binding arbitration to settle contract negotiations. That means an arbitrator will decide how much of a pay raise to award the HGEA, and the state will have to pay it.
DEAN SENSUI / DSENSUI@STARBULLETIN.COM
On the Senate floor yesterday, Pastor Chris Eng, of the Waipahu unit of the United Church of Christ, photographed state Sen. Cal Kawamoto and his family: wife Carolyn, left, her sister Alice Garcia and his daughter Nina.
Lingle fears that if the arbitrator accepts the HGEA demand of an 8 percent increase over two years, or something similar, it will be "a budget-busting decision."
"It will be very expensive if we get awards that are unrealistic because they bear no relationship to our ability to pay," Lingle said.
She added that the public is watching this session of the Legislature because of the upcoming fall elections.
"I think every legislator, regardless of party, is looking ahead to the election, and they will have to go back to their constituents and explain what they were able to achieve this session," Lingle said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
BACK TO TOP |
A House plan for education
reform gives each public
school its own boardDemocrats seek to decentralize the system
and empower schools to make decisions
Every public school would have its own school board under an education reform plan proposed by Democratic lawmakers in the state House yesterday.
"Our plan is to create 283 school boards," said Rep. Roy Takumi, (D, Pearl City-Pacific Palisades), House Education Committee chairman.
The plan would allow parents, students and teachers at each school to elect their own board under amended school/community-based management rules and does not require changing the state Constitution. Board members would be unpaid volunteers.
The Democrats want to retain the statewide Board of Education but will seek to change its makeup, which would require a constitutional amendment, Takumi said.
Gov. Linda Lingle has proposed replacing the BOE with seven elected school boards to decentralize school decision-making. The House proposal takes decentralization even further.
"We want to decentralize the system at its most basic level," Takumi said.
Lingle's proposal requires a constitutional amendment and provides a process to expand the number of elected school boards without seeking subsequent changes to the Constitution.
But she does not envision 283 separate school boards. "I think it might be a little much," Lingle said.
DEAN SENSUI / DSENSUI@STARBULLETIN.COM
Students with Halau Lokahi, a public charter school, went through a ritual to focus their thoughts yesterday before heading up to visit legislators at the state Capitol. Their cultural coordinator, kumu Hinaleimoana Wong, led the group's disciplinary exercise in front of the Father Damien statue.
As with Lingle's education plan, the House Democrats want to bypass the Department of Education and fund each school according to a weighted formula that takes into account the number of students at the school and their individual needs.
Principals would decide how to spend their budgets and make necessary decisions to improve student performance. However, principals can be removed based on how well they handle their budgets, how well their students perform and on evaluations by parents, teachers, students and staff.
School principals are members of a public-worker union, and removing them would require changing their contract.
"We're going to look at that. The collective-bargaining agreement ends in '05," Takumi said.
Lingle agreed that poorly performing principals should be removed.
"We don't want them guaranteed that they get to stay in a certain school. Maybe they have to be moved somewhere else," she said.
Takumi said the House Democrats' plan calls for using a student-weighted formula in funding the 2006-2007 school year, with board elections a year earlier. During that year, principals and school board members would undergo training at a principals academy.
"When I give a high school $6 million, that school-based board better be able to deal with it," he said.
Democrats and Lingle agreed that their plans to decentralize education have much in common.
"Both the administration and the Legislature have come a long way in agreeing that the priority is to make sure that money is sent directly to the schools," said House Vice Speaker Sylvia Luke (D, Pacific Heights-Punchbowl).
And Lingle said she remains open on locally elected school boards.
"We're not asking them to support local school boards. We're asking them to let the people of Hawaii have a voice in this critical issue."
