Unclear how replacing board will fix schools

By Lynda Arakawa and Kevin Dayton
Advertiser Capitol Bureau

Bills to break up the state Board of Education and replace it with locally elected school boards seem to be rolling to easy approval at the Legislature, fueled by frustration among lawmakers and the public. But it isn't clear exactly how the proposed changes will fix Hawai'i's struggling schools.

"Decentralized is a lot better," said Jeff Alameida, a 42-year-old financial planner from the North Shore and former Colorado resident.

Alameida said he had seen both centralized and decentralized education systems at work.

"Every community has their own special needs, and autonomy is really important. ... From an assessment standpoint, you can't pass the buck. You can find the strong and weak points of the organization pretty easily."

Opposed to the lawmakers' plan is an unlikely alliance made up of the Board of Education, the educational bureaucracy in the Department of Education, Gov. Ben Cayetano and the teachers' union. They contend that more school boards will spawn new bureaucracies, and question whether they will improve student achievement.

Lawmakers praised the education overhaul at length in floor debate Tuesday in the House, under the watchful eye of the president of the Hawai'i State Teachers Association. But for all of the floor speeches, lawmakers didn't dwell on the issue of how regional boards would be better.

That doesn't seem to trouble the voters, who either share lawmakers' faith that smaller is better or figure they have nothing to lose.

"I think they should give it a try to see if that way works," said Abe Morgado, a 34-year-old entrepreneur from Waipahu. "I definitely think we need to do something different."

At a time when money is tight, decentralizing the school system could well satisfy voters' demands for improvement. Targeting the Board of Education may also deflect public dissatisfaction away from lawmakers in a crucial election year.

Missing link

Opponents of the bill complain that the measures are vague and there is no clear link to improved student performance.

Joan Husted, executive director of the Hawai'i State Teachers Association, said the teachers' union believes the system needs to be changed, but the bills are missing important details. She said lawmakers have not been able to say exactly what local school boards would be responsible for or how the changes would help students.

"They keep saying, 'Well, we're going to talk about that. Well, we'll get to that,' " Husted said. "Those are fundamental questions that should be asked from the very beginning."

Husted said lawmakers are rushing to show voters they are responsive to public outcry. Some have told her they need to do something because education is an election issue, she said.

Senate Education Committee Chairman Norman Sakamoto, D-16th (Moanalua, Salt Lake), said lawmakers' frustrations with the system — particularly after legislative investigations into state spending for the Felix consent decree to improve special education services — prompted the search for sweeping changes.

"I wouldn't want to just push forward a major issue like this just to say that we've done something," Sakamoto said. "People are not happy with the education system as it exists; therefore people are saying, 'Do something.' On one hand people are saying, 'Spend more money,' and we're not opposed to that. Other people are saying, 'Why does it take so long to accomplish this or resolve that?' And I think this is one of the mechanisms to do that."

Sakamoto said his office sent out surveys to parents, school staff, principals and community members involved in education, and 70 percent of the 181 who responded wanted change in the governance structure.

"I think the improvement is improved communication," he said. Elected local board members would be accessible and knowledgeable about community concerns and able to respond quickly, he said, "as opposed to waiting for something to migrate through the DOE and up to the state Board of Education."

Board of Education Chairman Herbert Watanabe said the board is opposing all the governance bills, though members realize that might be futile.

"No matter what we say, it doesn't make a difference," Watanabe said. "They've already got their minds made up.

"Will these governance things really help to improve education? Will the kids be smarter? Will the test scores go up? The key to success is helping the teachers," Watanabe said. "Give them the equipment and supplies they need."

The Hawai'i Government Employees Association isn't convinced decentralization will help, either.

Leiomalama Desha, field services officer for the HGEA, noted that the Department of Education had released a report this year comparing performance of schools in the School-Community Based Management program to others, and found no correlation to higher test scores.

"What you have (at SCBM schools) are people who seemingly are happier — community members, parents who have been in some cases allowed to involve themselves more in the schools," Desha said — but no meaningful change in test scores.

Cayetano, who is siding with the board and the unions, said he had looked into decentralizing the system when he was lieutenant governor. "But since then I've grown a little older and wiser, and I think I learned a little bit from the experience of the different things that I've seen."

With all these separate boards of education, "everyone will want their own little bureaucracy," Cayetano said.

First step on long road

Defending the proposals, House Majority Whip Brian Schatz said he understood the need to focus on performance, but "we're never going to get there until we get an organization that works properly.

"Nobody is saying that this is a silver bullet," said Schatz, D-24th (Makiki, Tantalus). "Nobody is saying that this is going to immediately fix our schools. It is the first step on a long road toward restructuring the DOE. It's not the panacea, and it's a necessary but not sufficient condition for success."

Some lawmakers say privately, however, they don't expect the proposed constitutional amendment to pass, especially if it is long, complicated and difficult to digest in the voting booth. When voters are uncertain about an issue, they tend to vote no or leave the item blank, which counts as a negative vote on constitutional issues.

Also affecting the outcome of a vote would be which advocacy groups that jumped in to support the constitutional amendment. It is unclear who would push for passage or where they would get the resources to move public opinion. Meanwhile, the views of respected teachers and principals have significant clout, so opposition from educators and their unions would be an important factor.

Mixed plate

Local school boards appear to be a popular choice with the public, which generally accepts the view that the education system is wrought with problems. A majority of people interviewed in downtown Honolulu last week said decentralizing the system would be an improvement.

George Lindsey, a 49-year-old attorney from Hawai'i Kai, said local school boards would have a better link to the community.

"They have more understanding of what the community needs, and they're directly involved in what happens in that area because their children probably go (to school) there," he said.

But some said they have questions about the proposed system.

"What I don't want is where in some neighborhoods — richer neighborhoods — the kids get more, and in poor neighborhoods the kids get less," said Linda Morales, a state worker from Honolulu. "What I don't want is if it's individual school boards, that they're all fighting for the same pie, and whichever is more vocal gets more of the pie."

Schatz and other lawmakers see eliminating the Board of Education as a necessary first step in dismantling the bureaucracy, moving the pieces closer to the schools and focusing bureaucrats' attention on student performance.

If it were to pass, the constitutional amendment would be the political equivalent of planting a stick of dynamite and moving in later to reassemble the pieces.

"Unless we do this, we're going to fool around with little statutes and little rules and tinkering," and it won't work, Schatz said.

Advertiser staff writers Robbie Dingeman and Jennifer Hiller contributed to this report.