By Lee Cataluna
Advertiser Columnist

Let's dedicate this election to our children" Linda Lingle says in a commercial that runs three times per newscast.

She's on a balmy beach surrounded by a group of ethnically diverse children who look like they came straight from Central Casting. The kids have the most earnest looks on their little faces as Lingle talks about "our children" and "our future."

They're all saying it one way or another: This election is about the keiki. This election is about their future. Of course they're saying it, because who could vote against the keiki and the future? Everybody stands for the keiki and the future.

Except there's not much talk about the real keiki and their real problems.

I want to hear about the homeless children of ice addicts. How is your Pineapple Lottery going to help them, Andy? I want to hear about the kids who languish in the back of the class for four years and graduate without being able to write in complete sentences because the teacher has 45 other students to worry about. I don't see that kid in anybody's campaign commercials.

I want to hear about the boys who go in and out and back in again at the Olomana Youth Correctional Facility because there's nothing for them on the outside. Tell me what you're going to do for those kids, Dalton. How are your contacts in Asia going to get them on the right path?

Anderson has a plan to put special-needs kids in alternative schools, wiping out 20 years of work toward mainstreaming these kids. Hey, but at least he has a plan, which is better than the vapid "for the keiki, for the future" platitudes, I guess.

Mazie wants character education in the schools. Since when is character something you learn in character class? Let's just focus on basic education and leave the character education for prospective politicians.

Ed Case is brave enough to say that government has gotten too fat and that the schools need a top-down audit, but he hasn't dared breathe a word about raising taxes to get more money to the classroom, even though that's ultimately what it's going to take.

This election shouldn't be about the future. Our problems are right now. Fix today — and tomorrow will be that much better. We need people who have a handle on right now.

And as for the keiki, their lives get better when their parents' lives get better. Their lives get better when their schools get better. Their futures get better when someone has the guts to make today better.

Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com.