Choice key element of school reform plan
By Derrick DePledge
Advertiser Education Writer
Dean Uchida had heard good things about Momilani Elementary School in Pearl City, but he lives in Newtown, a few miles away, so the only way he could send his children there was to get one of the coveted geographic exceptions from the school's principal.
Luckily, his daughter won a lottery for an open seat in Momilani at kindergarten, and later, so did his son. Uchida immediately got active in the school's Parent Teacher Student Association and is now a believer in school choice.
"It's a commitment," said Uchida, executive director of the Land Use Research Foundation of Hawai'i. "If you make a choice, you have some ownership about what goes on with your children's education."
Parents have always had the choice of sending their children to private school, provided they have the money for tuition, but school choice, a growing movement in public schools nationwide, has become a popular theme of education reform in Hawai'i.
Citizens Achieving Reform in Education, Gov. Linda Lingle's advisory committee, has recommended that parents in Hawai'i be allowed to choose the public school their children attend — an important element of the governor's larger education reform plans.
But CARE's proposal is almost identical to the state Department of Education's existing geographic exception policy, so it is unclear exactly how choice would be expanded for parents looking for an alternative to their neighborhood school. Under the committee's plans, as now, several variables would significantly limit choice and undermine any notion that parents who live, for instance, in Wai'anae, would suddenly get to take their children to school in Hawai'i Kai.
Diana Oshiro, the principal of the Myron B. Thompson Academy, a charter school, described choice as a critical part of reform but added that details still need to be worked out. "I think it's important," said Oshiro, a former DOE administrator who serves on the governor's advisory committee. "But I also think people don't fully understand it yet."
Parents eager to go shopping for the best public schools would face several restrictions.
Schools with open seats would be able to accept students from outside the school's territory, but priority would be given to students who live in the area and students who demand to transfer from poorly performing schools under the federal No Child Left Behind law. Any remaining seats in a school would be determined by lottery.
Parents would also have to provide transportation to and from the new school, a potential challenge for parents with conflicting work hours or those who rely on school or public transit.
CARE members recognized that the DOE has a similar policy, but claimed that exceptions are awarded in private on a case-by-case basis and called for a more open process that encourages choice.
Today, parents can apply to send their children to any school and principals decide whether there is enough space for the student. Preference is given to transfers under No Child Left Behind and to students who want to move to take a particular class or program of study not available at their school. Students who have brothers and sisters or a parent at a school are also given priority. If there are more applicants than available seats, a lottery is held.
DOE spokesman Greg Knudsen said the policy has been clarified over the years to remove any perception that students get into certain schools because of personal connections. Parents have the right to appeal a principal's decision to the district superintendent.
Knudsen said the department would like to do a better job of tracking geographic exceptions, but estimates that as many as 8,000 students, or about 4 percent of the student population, are given exceptions each year.
Parents can also choose to send their children to any one of the DOE's 26 charter schools, which, by design, have an open enrollment policy intended to give parents an alternative to traditional public schools.
The CARE committee has recommended lifting a cap to allow up to 25 new startup charter schools. Educators could ask for a charter from one of the seven new local school boards or a new state education-standards board that would replace the state Board of Education under the committee's plan.
"Charter schools definitely enlarge the whole choice concept," said Gene Zarro, a member of the CARE committee and the chair of the board at Kihei High School, a charter school on Maui. "It's not a one-size-fits-all system.
"Sometimes choice is not about a location, it's a method."
With many schools in booming communities overflowing, and the best schools always a magnet, the biggest constraint on choice could be capacity.
Parents could also be limited at first to choosing from schools within one of the seven new school districts, with their choices expanding to nearby districts and beyond as the new school boards gain solid footing. Such early limits may leave parents in districts where most schools are underachieving or at capacity with few real options to transfer to significantly better schools.
Some educators and parents also believe that without free or subsidized transportation school choice is not a practical option. "There's a lot of parents out there that really can't afford that type of expense," said Don Hayman, president of the Hawai'i State Parent Teacher Student Association.
The DOE is required to provide transportation for students who transfer under No Child Left Behind, but, in the first two school years since the option has been available, few parents have asked to move their children. Tens of thousands of students are eligible to transfer under the law, but only about 20 students transferred last school year, while 157 students moved to new schools this year.
The option is new and some parents may not be fully aware of their rights, but educators have heard some parents say they prefer their children remain at their neighborhood school even if it is doing poorly, both for loyalty and convenience.
The PTSA has asked parents to try to improve neighborhood schools before rushing to transfer. "What we need to do is fix schools from within," Hayman said. "I think parents should look at their schools first rather than at greener pastures."
At Momilani, about 70 percent of the school's 420 students attend on geographic exceptions. When principal Doreen Higa arrived 15 years ago, the school had 188 students and room to grow because it served an older neighborhood with fewer elementary school-aged children. The school courted new students by creating a quality learning environment, and Momilani has since been recognized as a blue-ribbon school.
Similar things could happen at other schools, some CARE members envision, if principals have more flexibility over curriculum to attract parents looking for something unique for their children. Schools with capacity, or with lagging enrollment because some students choose to leave, could be reshaped as magnet schools that specialize in math or science or music or art.
Momilani now makes geographic exceptions only for students in kindergarten. Higa said she had a telephone call from a mother in Palisades recently who asked what she needed to do now so her 2-year-old could get into Momilani. The woman even said she'd sell the family home and move closer to the school if necessary.
"People want a school they feel comfortable with, a safe place for their child, and a school with rigorous standards," Higa said.
For Uchida, Momilani was the right school for his children. "It worked out great," he said. "I think part of the success of that school is because parents choose to send their children there."
His daughter and son have since moved on to middle school, and, for the public-school faithful, his example has no silver lining. They now attend Maryknoll, a private school.
Reach Derrick DePledge at ddepledge@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8084.
