Posted on: Tuesday, January 21, 2003

EDITORIAL
Our students deserve better facilities

For more than a year, The Advertiser has urged the state to implement a "Marshall Plan" to upgrade public schools plagued with termite damage, leaky roofs, malfunctioning plumbing and peeling paint.

We didn't expect an overnight miracle, given the state's scant resources, but we did expect some sort of commitment to dislodging the repair orders that were backing up like sewage in the state Department of Accounting and General Services.

Well, finally DAGS, which is in charge of school repairs and maintenance, has taken the initiative to develop a six-year plan to catch up with a $430 million backlog. The plan, according to a report by Advertiser education writer Jennifer Hiller, would mean improvements — including electrical power upgrades to boost computer and Internet use — for 228 public schools.

All this would cost about $120 million a year, which is going to be a tough sell at a time when state departments are being asked to cut 5 percent from their budgets to meet a $200 million shortfall.

Still, everyone seems to agree that a substandard public education system is to blame for many of Hawai'i's economic woes. That's why a Marshall Plan to rebuild our education system from the ground up is so critical.

In light of that, we urge Gov. Linda Lingle to throw her full support behind DAGS' renovation plan. The physical state of our public schools says a lot about the values we place on education. What kind of message do we want to send to the rest of the nation?