“;No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.”;

The Star-Bulletin used that quotation from Polish writer Stanislaw J. Lec as the opening line in a package of education stories published in 1994, highlighting how accountability was impossible to impose in the state Department of Education.

The single, statewide public school system is headed by a superintendent who is hired by the elected Board of Education, which has close ties to the labor unions that collectively represent virtually all DOE employees; is funded by lawmakers (who know the power of the purse); and further controlled by a governor who can release (or not release) the taxpayers' money budgeted by the Legislature.

Then, as now, that governance structure left no one truly responsible, feeding a “;pass the buck”; mentality that pervades the entire school system.

Then, as now, there was a push to improve accountability while preserving the funding equity for which Hawaii is known.

One thing is different now: The state's fiscal crisis has laid bare the failure of the current approach, as all the players bemoan Furlough Fridays — and yet they persist. Ten school days lost already, seven more furloughs scheduled this year and 17 more next school year.

A variation of the Lec quotation reads: “;Each snowflake in an avalanche pleads not guilty.”;

Many say it is time for the usual suspects to rise to the challenge of truly putting students first.