Posted on: Monday, April 30, 2001

Public schools must not accept status quo

It took scrambling, creativity and a tremendous sense of obligation to the kids to find a way to save eight spring high school athletic championship events in the wake of the public school strike.

For that, everyone involved deserves a round of applause.

Now, how about applying that same "can do" attitude toward classroom instruction, which will also have to be rescued from the strike-forced interruption?

School Superintendent Paul LeMahieu described the rescue of the tournaments this way:

"They've done an incredible job," he said. "They had to deal not only with issues of logistics, which was a nightmare in itself, but also with issues of competition, fairness and safety for the athletes. They came up with a very clear, positive solution."

That's it! The very words. What Hawai'i's public school system needs is a "very clear, positive solution."

If the will can be found to save eight athletic tournaments, it can be found to rescue public education in general.

There is no reason why we must accept the status quo. The folks who wanted the tournaments to go on didn't accept no for an answer. The same thing should apply for the entire public school system.