Posted on: Sunday, July 7, 2002

SUNDAY FOCUS
Education must become our priority

By John Griffin

It's time to put up and not shut up on Hawai'i's public schools.

Education reform is vital — maybe the most important issue of all when you think of our people's future. It should not get lost or distorted in an election year that threatens to be dominated by personality politics and voter cynicism. But it can.

Concerned and talented people have been working. You might even say the reform process is partly under way, looking at efforts involving the state Department of Education, University of Hawai'i and private groups. More on that later.

Everything connects on education and reform, to the point that many of us aren't sure what comes first. Inertia and confusion are parts of the problem. Still, to me, reform also divides into two parts I call the physical and the psychological.

So, first these points on the physical aspects, those parts that can be maneuvered by money and bureaucratic or legislative decisions:

• If we want better and brighter citizens and workers, Hawai'i should be near the top among states in per-capita spending on public education instead of far lower.

Surveys indicate Islanders will support a special tax going to education if they could be sure it would actually get to the schools. Possibilities include a surtax on income or designating part of the excise tax. Financing should be stable, and the school board (or boards) should be given control.

But any such "reforms" have to be part of a well-constructed package that also includes other elements.

• Decentralizing has become such an attractive idea (politically and otherwise) for fixing the system that the danger is that it will be done without enough thought to the total context.

That almost happened at the Legislature this year with a proposal to have seven or 15 elected school boards around the Islands. Beware of more too-easy answers proposed during the election campaign.

(Ironically, if Hawai'i now had multiple elected school boards and the public was as unhappy as it actually is today, no doubt many people would be saying a needed reform would be combining those boards into a single state board, perhaps appointed by the governor.)

• Obviously, educator quality is essential for an improving system. That means more and better-trained teachers from the university and elsewhere. And if being a good teacher isn't the toughest and most important job in town, then being a leader-motivator principal certainly is. I support unions but don't think principals should be in one.

People are working on better training and recruitment, and they will need continuing support. Money isn't everything here, but it certainly is a factor. (I have a son who makes far more teaching high school in California than he might get here.)

• Early childhood is a vital period in an individual's education. Yet it gets too little attention, priority and coordination, especially for low-income groups. Think of a holistic system from home and daycare to pre-school to the K-12 grades and beyond to a university and maybe graduate school.

• Special education for children with disabilities is both complicated and controversial. Still, it has to be factored in, including in any system of decentralization with more local autonomy.

• Diversity in education options has to be part of any system, and that means more complications.

Elements of a diverse education system include charter schools, Hawaiian-language immersion schools, School-Community-Based Management options, schools within schools, year-round schools and those with flexible or innovative schedules.

I don't think I'm for a voucher system to give folks more choice of schools, but a limited test of a voucher program of some form could be interesting. Same with a test of privatization.

Supposing we connect all those dots: That still leaves us with what I call the psychological part of school reform.

First, we have to close the disconnect that too often exists between the community and public education in Hawai'i.

I've written before of the down side, the way so many of our top people, themselves the products of public schools, send their children to private schools. But that fact of life is not going to change, at least not soon, in most areas.

The problem is to get everyone, no matter where their kids go to school or even if they already have graduated, to realize that a good public education system is all the more essential today for democratic, social and economic development.

Just as war is too important to be left to generals or governing to bureaucrats, so public education is not just the preserve of education professionals, hard as some may work. Those professionals need help — and sometimes also to realize that they, too, must see themselves as part of the community fabric.

All that said, things are happening.

While eight months in office seems too soon to give a grade, Superintendent Pat Hamamoto is said to have brought a new can-do attitude to the state Department of Education.

Along with her own internal measures, she also has been meeting with University of Hawai'i President Evan Dobelle on increasing cooperation between the university and the state Department of Education. They have been discussing plans for a K-20 Education Summit for October.

UH already has the little-known, public-private Hawai'i Educational Policy Center that does independent research. In addition, the UH College of Education is working with the state Department of Education and private education providers for a proposed new Hawai'i Education Complex to promote lifelong learning.

On another level, the nonprofit Civic Forum on Public Schools, which has held conferences for six years, is planning its own summit in October with the goal of producing a five-year timetable for improving the system.

Finally, this comes in one of Hawai'i's most important and uncertain election years. Education should be an issue in every state contest from the governor's race on down. It will only be that way if more voters demand that candidates produce.

We don't need union-bashing, unrealistic ideas or simplistic proposals to catch headlines. We do need thoughtful, coordinated programs — and we need commitments to get something done in the next few years.

John Griffin, a frequent contributor, is former editor of The Advertiser's editorial pages.