Posted on: Tuesday, December 2, 2003

EDITORIAL
Reform can't wait for governance fight

Although Gov. Linda Lingle made reform of our public school system a top priority in her campaign for governor, education is not, and should not be, an issue controlled by politics.

Getting our schools up to speed should be, in fact, a goal that transcends politics. That's particularly true today as Hawai'i gears up for what could be an economic transformation over the next several years.

In that sense, it is encouraging to read that House Education Chairman Roy Takumi has warmed to some of the reform ideas championed by Lingle and her administration in meetings across the state.

Last session, Democrats spiked just about every proposal on education from the Lingle administration. To avoid that same unhappy outcome again, it is critical that the Legislature and the administration have a common battle plan going into the session.

One area where a strong split appears to remain is in Lingle's plan to break up the single statewide school district into seven locally elected boards. Takumi says he hasn't seen much evidence yet that the breakup would directly affect the quality of education.

While local school boards arguably would be more responsive to their local community, there is nothing to guarantee they would be any less political.

In any event, it is critical that other promising changes for our schools do not get lost in a power standoff over the single-vs.-many school board dispute.

If the Democrats are showing flexibility, so should Lingle; smaller districts should not be the be-all and end-all of the education debate.

Where the Democrats and the Lingle administration appear to be moving toward agreement is on a new spending formula that would give far more control over spending and curriculum to individual school leaders.

The spending formula would give schools money on a "weighted" basis with extra money for students with special needs. While the formula would add money to schools with special-education students or those who do not speak English, it could also allocate extra for the needs of high-achieving students.

One danger in this plan, however, is that school administrators could end up shifting students into special-needs categories purely to obtain more money.

The key to all this is to empower principals to run their schools and control their budget as they see fit, so long as basic overall educational goals are met.

If more community involvement is wanted, the existing School-Community-Based Management Councils offer a ready-made framework.

The vast economic changes rushing upon this state will demand a skilled, flexible, alert 21st-century work force — the best our schools can produce. We cannot put off the task of producing this work force for an endless political debate over governance and control.