Critical e-mail by DOE aide riles consultant

By Derrick DePledge
Advertiser Education Writer

An education consultant to Gov. Linda Lingle has asked for an inquiry into the chief spokesman of the state Department of Education for sending critical e-mail to the consultant's boss about the consultant's work in Hawai'i.

William Ouchi, a professor in corporate renewal at the University of California-Los Angeles who is working with Lingle on education reform, said yesterday that he was angry and upset over e-mail that Greg Knudsen, the DOE's communications director, sent to Ouchi's dean at UCLA.

In an e-mail Nov. 28 to Bruce Willison, dean of the Anderson School at UCLA, Knudsen wrote that Ouchi has received several free trips to Hawai'i from Lingle and that in return Ouchi "is giving UCLA's reputation a black eye with phony research that has one purpose — to advance the governor's political agenda."

Ouchi responded yesterday by sending a letter to the state Board of Education asking for an inquiry into whether Knudsen was acting on his own or on behalf of the board or the DOE. Ouchi provided copies of Knudsen's e-mail to reporters during an interview in Lingle's office.

Ouchi was the co-author of a recent report to Lingle that was critical of DOE finances and that concluded that the DOE was too large and inefficient to handle a new student spending formula. The DOE has criticized the report as distorted, and the episode has exposed raw feelings between some at the DOE and the Lingle administration.

Laura H. Thielen, a BOE member who serves on Lingle's education advisory group, also raised the issue of Knudsen's e-mail Thursday at a board meeting on Kaua'i, saying that she also has been the subject of unflattering DOE e-mail because of her work on reform.

The DOE's deputy superintendent, Clayton Fujie, said that Knudsen is a DOE employee and that any review of his behavior would be conducted by the DOE.

Knudsen said he sent the e-mail on his own, from his home computer, because he felt that Willison should know about Ouchi's activities in Hawai'i. He said he did not tell anyone on the board or at the DOE until after the issue was brought up by Thielen at the board meeting Thursday.

In hindsight, Knudsen said, he should have made it clear that he was speaking for himself and not on behalf of the DOE. He said his e-mail noted that he was communications director at the DOE in the interest of "full disclosure."

Willison wrote back to Knudsen, explaining that he was not in a position to comment on Ouchi's research in Hawai'i but said that reaction to Ouchi's book, "Making Schools Work," had been positive among education experts in California. Knudsen responded in another e-mail that, "We, too, were part of his fan club, before he started performing partisan and discredited research."

Ouchi's book is being used by Lingle's advisory group, Citizens Achieving Reform in Education, as a primary resource as it develops recommendations for the governor on a new weighted student formula and locally elected school boards.

Randy Roth, the governor's education adviser, said CARE would likely form a not-for-profit group that would be able to accept donations to pay expenses for consultants and other items. Ouchi, Roth said, would likely have his travel expenses to the Islands reimbursed by this group. Ouchi, who grew up in Hawai'i and graduated from Punahou School, said he usually stays at his father's Fort Ruger area home on his visits.

The Hawaiian Educational Council, a nonprofit group that promotes professional development for educators and policy-makers, paid the travel expenses for Ouchi and three educators who appeared at an October forum that was also partially paid for by the DOE.

Ouchi, who was chief of staff to former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan and an education adviser to Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaign for California governor, said he was shocked that Knudsen would send such e-mail to his boss.

"This kind of vicious assault on my reputation, by writing to my dean, to my boss, is absolutely and completely beyond the realm of anything I've ever encountered before, beyond anything that is morally acceptable, and seems to me absolutely unforgivable," Ouchi said.

Knudsen said that he stands by his criticism of Ouchi's research and felt that Ouchi's public response to the e-mail was an attempt to chill his right to speak out. "This is basically the governor's office coming down on me as an individual," he said.

Ouchi, who wants Knudsen reprimanded, said it appears that some within the DOE are afraid of reform. "To me, this is an act of desperation," he said.

Reach Derrick DePledge at 525-8084 or ddepledge@honoluluadvertiser.com.