Bills on voting rights for student BOE member face hurdles
By Jennifer Hiller
Advertiser Education Writer
The legislative measure most important to Hawai'i student council leaders could be stalled at the Legislature again this year.
Bills that would give the student member of the state Board of Education voting rights on everything but personnel and budget matters are stuck in the judiciary committees of the House and Senate, and have not been scheduled for hearings.
The measure easily moved out of the House and Senate education committees, but have yet to clear the judiciary and finance committees.
Students are concerned because the judiciary committees are the ones that shelved the voting-rights bill last session.
Members of the Hawai'i State Student Conference plan to lobby the committee chairpersons today.
"We think it's sort of a waste of time to have a BOE student member," said Francisco Heftel-Liquido, a junior at Punahou School and the vice chairman of the Hawai'i State Student Conference. "They have to go to all the meetings and do all the work, but they don't get paid and they can't vote. They say they're giving students a voice when they really don't."
Getting voting rights for the student Board of Education member is always the top priority for students.
It also always fails.
The student member of the state BOE sits through meetings and can join the discussion, but that's it.
Rep. K. Mark Takai, Di34th (Pearl City, Newtown, Royal Summit) introduced the bill in the House this year for students. But he said it may run into trouble because of another education issue.
"I think the problem with the bill the last few years has been the Legislature hasn't resolved what we want to do with school governance," Takai said. "One of the by-products of not knowing what's going to happen is the student member. There's no talk about eliminating the position, but the change will take a constitutional amendment."
Lawmakers for years have toyed with the idea of splitting the Department of Education into separate districts governed by local school boards, although the measure appears to be dead for this year.
Rep. Roy Takumi, chairman of the House Education Committee, said because constitutional amendments would be on the 2004 ballot at the earliest, many bills that require constitutional amendments won't be heard this session.
"I wouldn't be discouraged if I was a student," he said. "We could pass it here, but we'd have to pass it out again next year if it doesn't get a two-thirds majority (in the Senate). And the language has to be exactly the same."
Every year students from Hawai'i Secondary Student Conference, teens from every public school district and private schools statewide, meet at the state Capitol and the University of Hawai'i to make a legislative session's worth of suggestions.
They've called for healthier food at school concessions and soda machines, more money for textbooks and safe bike lanes near school campuses.
Lawmakers help them mold their agenda into the legalese required of a legislative bill and students lobby for their passage during the session.
So far this session, students are having more success with bills that would require training for school security guards, give in-state school construction contractors an exemption from the excise tax (which out-of-state contractors don't pay) and require the use of macrons and glottal stops in spelling Hawaiian words in county and state government documents.
Reach Jennifer Hiller at jhiller@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8084.
