COUNTERPOINT
Felix — a long way to go

By Robert M. Rees
Moderator of 'Olelo Television's "Counterpoint" and Hawai'i Public Radio's "Talk of the Islands"

At the Sept. 10 federal court hearing on the Felix Consent Decree, Chief Judge David Ezra employed a metaphor to support his ruling that Hawai'i is in compliance. The state, mused the judge, "doesn't have to build and ... can't afford to build a building like the Trump Tower in New York."

Having illustrated what an appropriate education for the disabled isn't, Ezra went on to maintain that it's the parents of Felix-class children who are inappropriately pressing for a Trump Tower. Added the judge, "Just because you're a parent of a special-needs child doesn't mean you're always right."

Wait a New York minute! No one wants a Trump Tower. In fact, no one likes the veritable one we already have, an educational edifice characterized by a superficial veneer, debt, waste and disdain for the occupants.

Yet, it appears the court has let itself be persuaded that only a few chronic malcontents stand between Hawai'i and total freedom from court oversight.

Promoting this proposition is special court master Jeffrey Portnoy. On July 26, Portnoy advised Ezra that the state is doing just fine except for a few spoilers who are "not fully supportive of the plan."

This was a reference to the Senate-House Felix investigative committee and to Deputy AG Dewey Kim. It was Kim, explained Portnoy later, who called him to provide "anecdotal examples of Felix as a disaster."

Warned Portnoy about these negativists, "Their statements ... have provided support to those in our community who would seek to return to a system that historically failed."

In fact, no one seeks such a return. What we have are parents who believe their children are being denied a quality education. They believe this because they have seen it with their own eyes.

Nevertheless, Ezra tried on the rose-colored glasses offered up by Portnoy. He liked what he saw. Said the judge, "I am very proud. ... We have brought Hawai'i from the Dark Ages."

It is true that Hawai'i has leapt out of the Dark Ages, but no further than into the late medieval period. Even as Ezra was making his ruling, parents on Kaua'i were making plans to hold a car wash to finance a trip to O'ahu to meet with legislators about the sudden and unexplained transfer of Kim, who had interviewed them about state compliance.

Attorney General Earl Anzai has written in The Advertiser that Kim was not silenced. Yet, Kim was transferred only after Anzai and the governor learned of Kim's entreaties to Portnoy.

Things are so bad with regard to how the AG's Office mishandles Felix that U.S. Magistrate Leslie Kobayashi, on Aug. 30, sanctioned Deputy AG Pamela Toguchi for her role in neglecting compliance. The deputy was fined $1,500 and barred from "further representing (the state of Hawai'i) in this action."

Things are no better at the Department of Education. The administrator for special education, Debbie Farmer, maintains that Ezra was misinformed when he noted that some of our Felix experts have left Hawai'i because "they are still fighting an entrenched bureaucracy within the state that is resisting change."

Farmer also denied to this writer and to the departing Dr. Dan LeGoff, a pediatric neuropsychologist who specializes in autism, that LeGoff had been blacklisted for siding with parents in disputes with the state. In fact, LeGoff and others say they have seen the list.

The DOE has now gone from blacklisting to proposing that contracts awarded to providers like LeGoff henceforth carry a gag order that prohibits testimony on behalf of the children.

The only silver lining to Ezra's ruling was his decision to extend court oversight of Hawai'i's Trump Tower. It's getting bigger, but not better.