[ OUR OPINION ]

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School-level funding
requires a careful balance

THE ISSUE A San Francisco school system has achieved success in using some of the proposals Hawaii is considering for public education reform.

A San Francisco school district's success with a formula for funding public education points to a model the state could emulate. Close examination of what works and what doesn't will help lawmakers and education leaders decide what will be best for Hawaii's students.

Administrators from the San Francisco United School District, who were among the participants in the state Department of Education's summit Saturday, cautioned that the weighted student formula they employ is just one component of their system, which also includes achievement targets, standards, training and decision-making powers for principals and on-site school councils.

What is encouraging is that after three years the district has seen test scores rise annually and parental participation increase, and that legislators and Schools Superintendent Patricia Hamamoto have been assembling similar ideas in the effort to reform public education.

Governor Lingle, however, remains adamant in pushing for a constitutional amendment that would replace the statewide Board of Education with at least seven local boards as the key to reform.

In her speech at the summit, Lingle presented results of a poll conducted for her office that showed the majority of those surveyed want the matter put to a vote. The governor used her poll to show that she doesn't stand alone on the constitutional issue, but a poll doesn't advance her argument that local school boards have a significant effect on student learning.

The governor's poll numbers show that most in the survey want schools to control 90 percent of funds spent on education, reflecting a desire that schools largely decide spending priorities. While that may be ideal, the practice may result in diverting too much of administrators' attention from instructional matters.

The San Francisco system, for example, places about 65 percent of funds in the hands of each school, an amount tied to academics. Lance Tagomori, a Roosevelt High graduate who is now a San Francisco elementary school principal, noted that this allows him to focus on learning and teaching without having to deal with facilities management, such as food service and utilities.

Legislators currently are considering a 75 percent figure, but have not yet settled on the amount. It will depend on figuring out which functions should be handled by the department.

The goal in restructuring should be to cut red tape so school-level officials get what they need to serve students and teachers quickly and for the department to serve them cost-effectively. The figure should not be arrived at arbitrarily or by poll numbers.

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[IN APPRECIATION]

A hero with an
Everyman manner

Most of Hawaii knew him as Harry of the "Harry and Myra" team that for years represented Bank of Hawaii in television commercials. So successful was that franchise that it overshadowed the real man, Ben H. Tamashiro, who died Friday at age 86.

The Hanapepe-born Tamashiro and his real-life wife, Gloria, effortlessly portrayed ordinary people in the ads but, as is often true, that comportment concealed the extraordinary. In Tamashiro's case, the public image hid his talent as a writer, his generosity as a community volunteer and his service to his country as a member of the 100th Battalion during World War II.

What was not obscured was a good-natured optimism and a spirit that made connections over the airwaves as well as in person. He didn't mind that people called him Harry. By whatever name, he was the same good man.

-- Star-Bulletin