Progress of education upgrade is debated

By Lynda Arakawa
Advertiser Capitol Bureau

In the 2000 elections, voters demanded action on education. The 2001 legislative session was lawmakers' big chance to show they heard, understood and obeyed the call.

Then school teachers and university faculty hit the picket lines and overshadowed the session. With education likely to remain the top issue in the 2002 elections, what the public thinks of the strike and the way it was handled could be critical.

Lawmakers promised voters in last year's elections that they would improve Hawai'i's public education system by providing more resources and money for school repairs, teacher salaries, new textbooks, computers and smaller class sizes.

There also were broad promises to reform the system, reduce bureaucracy and encourage charter schools.

As the legislative session draws to a close Thursday, the results are mixed.

Legislators are poised to approve measures that would provide $112 million for teacher pay raises, an additional $60 million over two years for school repairs and maintenance, and an average of $7,500 per school for smaller repairs.

But they apparently won't approve Gov. Ben Cayetano's plan to provide an extra $4.5 million for textbooks and $27.5 million for classroom computers.

During the elections, Republican lawmakers ran strong on a platform of decentralizing the school system by establishing local school boards — a proposal that quickly failed.

Although the Legislature did add $8.4 million in teaching positions over two years for existing and new schools, it did nothing to reduce the average class size — 17.8 students per teacher — in the public school system.

House and Senate leaders say the money for school repairs, higher teacher salaries and other items are a significant boost for the public school system.

"We have taken the executive budget and made education a priority," said Senate President Robert Bunda, D-22nd (Wahiawa, Waialua, Sunset Beach).

But some Democratic and Republican lawmakers say the Legislature should have done more.

"It certainly helps to have the teachers adequately compensated ... but it certainly came with a cost, and unfortunately if anybody thinks that just paying teachers more solves education problems, they're making a big mistake," said House Minority Leader Galen Fox, R-21st (Waikiki, Ala Wai). "We still have a broken system. Major reform is something that lies in the future."

The session was overshadowed by contract negotiations with school teachers and the University of Hawai'i faculty, which ultimately led to strikes that shut down the state's public education system. There is broad agreement that the public was solidly behind the teachers during the strike, but it's not clear how the public views lawmakers' role in the conflict. Some lawmakers and others believe the voters may partly blame the Legislature for the strike, but others disagree.

And while it's also not yet clear what the voters will make of this year's session, lawmakers are already disagreeing whether the Legislature can legitimately claim it made major strides to improve education.

'Ewa resident Faye Gabalis, whose 7-year-old granddaughter attends public school, is not impressed.

"When they (lawmakers) were running and they were campaigning and all that, everything was education first, education first," she said. "To me, they didn't do that. I never seen that."

Rep. Ed Case, D-23rd (Manoa), who is often at odds with his fellow Democrats, agreed that the public expected more.

"Those legislators who go back to their districts and say we addressed education by approving a pay raise for teachers will not be able to say accurately that we did everything we could to improve education," he said. "The problems in education go way beyond teacher salary. ... The problems with education are not exclusively money. The problems with education are organization, administration, decision-making, responsibility."

Senate Education Committee Chairman Norman Sakamoto, D-16th (Moanalua, Salt Lake), pointed to accomplishments such as new initiatives to help the state spend school repair and maintenance money more efficiently.

He also said lawmakers took steps to raise the quality of teachers by providing more money for teacher training and professional development, and moving the responsibility of licensing teachers from the Department of Education to the Hawai'i Teachers Standards Board.

The budget also includes $5 million for schools superintendent Paul LeMahieu's Hawai'i Content and Performance Standards. Sakamoto also said the Legislature is addressing the anticipated principal shortage with a measure that would reduce the required number of years a principal or vice principal candidate must have served at the school to be eligible for such positions. Lawmakers say this clears the way for the education department to hire private school headmasters and other leaders.

Sen. Avery Chumbley, D-6th (E. Maui, N. Kaua'i), said he has heard a lot of public demand for money-related initiatives, such as textbooks, pay raises and assessments, but he doesn't know if voters will be satisfied.

"I'm not that optimistic that they will be," he said.

People may say the Legislature isn't moving fast enough, but improving education is a continuing process, Sakamoto said.

"I think if the public understands the different parts of the bills we moved forward or the resolutions that are moving forward in education, they'll see that, indeed, many areas either will be immediately improved or (will have) the foundation for building upon where we are and going forward," he said. "There's improvement on all fronts. ... It has to be ongoing.

"I think the public, if they list down all the promises that are made, the answer to if they are all fulfilled (is) no. But ... if you measure what was fulfilled and are we moving in the right direction, I would say that we are moving in the right direction, no question, in education."

Having teacher and university faculty strikes at a time when politicians were hoping to impress constituents with education initiatives may have cost lawmakers political points.

Republicans and Democrats jumped at opportunities to appeal to voters angered by the strikes. Democratic and Republican political figures visited picket lines. And in a move many thought was undermining the governor's negotiating power, the Senate approved — during the strike — a budget that included about $200 million for teacher pay raises.

House and Senate GOP leaders insisted the strikes would have never happened if Republican Linda Lingle was governor, and Republicans used every opportunity to demonstrate their support for teachers.

During floor debate on a bill to finance a model United Nations program for high school students, Republican Sen. Bob Hogue (Kane'ohe, Kailua) said the money would be better spent for teacher pay raises.

The Senate's budget already included money for the raises, but teachers sitting in the gallery applauded the gesture anyway.

Honolulu pollster Don Clegg said the Legislature should be able to escape blame from the public, and believes the strike neither benefited nor hurt members of either party because both parties publicly maintained teachers deserved raises.

"The Legislature was not taking a big prominent role in the negotiating process," he said. "They were on the right side of the issue."

But some lawmakers say the Legislature won't be able to walk away without at least some public scrutiny. Exactly where the public may direct its questioning or anger, however, depends on who you talk to.

Chumbley said that "all members, Democrats and Republicans, will have some political fallout from this." While the Democrats may be more vulnerable because they control the Legislature, Chumbley said he doesn't think most people distinguish between Democratic and Republican lawmakers.

Chumbley said lawmakers will have to communicate with their constituents at a grass-roots level to repair any damage the strikes may have caused.

Fox said the Democrats will and should be blamed. When asked why, he criticized Cayetano's handling of the negotiations.

"I think people are increasingly disenchanted with the way the Democratic party is running Hawai'i and is increasingly more willing to take a chance on change," he said.

Blame is typically laid on whoever is in charge, but Case said he doesn't think that necessarily means voters are ready vote GOP.

"This could give a new Democrat an advantage," he said. "People want change. If we don't deliver it they'll find someone who will, but that doesn't automatically mean a Republican."

Case said lawmakers should receive part of the blame and that the state and teacher dispute over raises was partly caused by the failure of the Legislature to prioritize state spending for the last five years.

"The executive branch has been pushing us to make priorities, government reform, responsible budgeting," he said. "It's not like the Legislature can throw up its hands and say our hands are not dirty for that. We set the situation up."

Advertiser staff writers Kevin Dayton and Ronna Bolante contributed to this report.