EDITORIAL
Shortage of principals should trigger change

A statewide shortage of principals and vice principals in our public schools should trigger a fundamental reassessment of how we choose these vital school leaders and what we expect of them.

According to education writer Jennifer Hiller, the Department of Education is in search of as many as 113 vice principals for the next school year. About 20 principals will also have to be located.

Traditionally, principals and vice principals come out of the teacher ranks, and that makes considerable sense in that you get people familiar with education and the school environment.

But it is becoming increasingly difficult to recruit teachers to administrative ranks. The pay is not much better than that for senior teachers and the workload can be tremendous.

An increasing pace of retirements by senior principals will only make the situation worse in the coming years.

This creates a ripe opportunity for Hawai'i to rethink its policies about public school principals. A full-scale discussion — involving teachers, Department of Education administrators, legislative policy-makers, parent organizations and others — should take up the option of removing principals from the union and making them fully professional administrators.

There's no doubt that a quality, dynamic principal is the single best indicator of success in a school. But if we want top-flight CEO-quality leadership, we must be willing to pay for it. And we must be willing to demand results.

Imagine a system in which principals were paid big-time, six-figure salaries, and were given true command of their individual schools. In exchange for the pay, the public would have a right to demand measurable, consistent quality performance.

Just as in the private market, the best talent would be attracted to the toughest jobs and the highest compensation. While many principals and vice principals would still come out of the ranks of teachers, there is no reason why executive leadership for our schools couldn't come out of other fields as well.

Some principals undoubtedly would not want to give up the security of the union, and those should be allowed to return to the teaching field with pay and benefits intact.

The arguments about going to a free-wheeling, performance-based system for hiring and firing principals are many. This is not a concept that can simply be rammed down people's throats.

But as Hiller's story makes clear, our current system isn't working. There are too many vacancies and too many school administrators foundering in a system that leaves them overworked, underpaid and struggling to keep up.