EDITORIAL
Time to rationalize school building plans

School construction, repair and maintenance has been one of Hawai'i's biggest government headaches for decades.

Almost everyone agrees the system has not worked well, but people do little but shrug their shoulders in frustration when asked how it can be improved.

Well, one major step toward rationalizing and modernizing this system was taken last week when Gov. Linda Lingle signed into law a new process for repair and maintenance of public school buildings.

The law would put direct control over repair and maintenance projects in the hands of the Department of Education. Previously, such projects were run through the Department of Accounting and General Services, which would do them according to its schedules and policies.

Often, that meant a schedule that did not match up perfectly with the priorities of the Department of Education. The new law, which had the support of both the DOE and DAGS, will give the Department of Education final say in determining repair and maintenance priorities.

That's an important step, and may speed up a process in which the backlog of repair work seemed to grow faster than the list of completed projects. Former Govs. Ben Cayetano and John Waihee both complained that their efforts to catch up on backlogged repairs were thwarted by a process that simply took too long.

The change is important, because the first step toward bringing our schools up to par is a "Marshall Plan" attack on rundown school facilities that make teaching and learning difficult.

Now that this step has been taken, the DOE, administration and Legislature should take a similar approach to school construction, which still involves school officials, the administration through DAGS, and individual legislators who push projects in their home districts to the top of the list.

The same logic should apply. Yes, lawmakers should be active in bringing needed school construction projects to the attention of the Department of Education, but it only makes sense that the DOE should have the final say on which construction projects come first.