[ OUR OPINION ]
Governor, legislators must
work out school reformsCLAIMS to the contrary, politics has as much to do with public education reform as altruistic proffers from Governor Lingle and Democrats in the state Legislature that both are concerned only with improving the schools. Toting up wins and losses with eyes on the fall elections is surely on their minds.
THE ISSUE
Governor Lingle has rejected the bill to reform public education and is asking state lawmakers for changes.
Nonetheless, their duel cannot be allowed to stand in the way of a remedy for public education. Lawmakers should give serious consideration to the Republican governor's suggestions for changes in the measure she sent back to them with her veto. Lingle should remain open to the modifications legislators approve. Both sides should show determination to get reforms passed now. Letting another year go by without progress would squander opportunity, disregard public concern, frustrate parents and, worst of all, hurt students.
In rejecting the bill, Lingle gamely submitted amendments that she says would make it palatable.
She abandoned, for the time being, the multiple school boards that had been the centerpiece of her reform plan, but asked lawmakers to curtail the decision-making authority they had conferred on community councils for each campus.
Although this appears contradictory to her desire for local control, the governor sees the councils as interfering with a principal's management of a school, and, indeed, it is the most unwieldy element of the reform bill. In an effort to allow parents, the public, teachers and others to weigh in on school operations, it is burdened by a tiered process for resolution of disputes and diffuses accountability that should be centered on the principal.
As the governor's foremost concern, legislators should yield to her call to redefine councils as purely advisory.
Another change Lingle proposes is to treat charter schools equitably, allowing them to choose whether to receive their funding through the new weighted student formula that distributes money based on a child's educational needs and to provide for the schools' facilities as well. Charter schools, which some view as the step-children of public education, extend needed alternatives to traditional scholarship and should receive fair shares of the state's support.
On other matters, the governor and lawmakers aren't far apart. Lingle would like the weighted student formula to begin in full starting in the 2005-'06 school year. The bill initiates the formula in a pilot program at that time to allow for adjustments and public discussion before putting it in practice the next year. Fine-tuning the formula isn't unreasonable; the governor should yield.
Lingle also wants to place principals on performance contracts immediately, but union contracts inhibit this. Legislators say they intend to negotiate the issue later. Lingle should make sure they keep to their word; principal accountability is key to improving student achievement.
The last of the governor's amendments would increase a principal's control of a school's budget from the bill's 70 percent to 90 percent. Legislators drew their figure based on models in other school systems where principals didn't want non-academic matters, such as transportation and food service, to divert their attention. Lingle contends that 70 percent leaves principals little flexibility. Perhaps an increase could be phased in more quickly. If principals find they want more, the Legislature should reconsider. Education reform isn't a one-time fix.
