Lingle seeks public help in reviving schools bill
By Will Hoover
Advertiser Staff Writer
"We're not going to let it die a quiet death in this session," Gov. Linda Lingle said yesterday in appealing directly to the public on behalf of her plan to establish local school boards throughout the state.
Backed by a yellow-and-blue "Let the People Decide" sign and citing a recent OmniTrak Group poll showing 66 percent of Hawai'i's residents in favor of the education reform, Lingle called on the Legislature to revive a bill that would give voters the say on whether to replace the state Board of Education with seven elected district boards.
That bill is stalled in the Democrat-controlled Legislature. Meanwhile, a bill sponsored by House Democrats that would create 15 advisory "complex area school councils" has moved on to the Senate.
Speaking at a Hickam Air Force Base news conference, Lingle called the House Democrats' bill "an attempt to fool the public into thinking that something has really changed."
Such advisory committees would have no real autonomy, she said, and the decision-making power over regional schools would remain with the BOE, which she portrayed as out of touch with schools, particularly rural campuses.
"House Democrats have been playing politics with children's education," said Lingle. "And all that we're asking them at this point is to put this measure on the ballot so the people of Hawai'i can decide how to educate their children."
Lingle questioned the Legislature's change of heart since last year when she said 42 legislators, including all but one House Democrat, endorsed the notion of letting voters decide on local school boards. She quoted lawmakers who at the time described the idea as a "dream come true" that would empower communities, reform the education system and reach out to parents.
"I believe that these same people who one year ago said local school boards are a good idea owe the people of Hawai'i an explanation as to why they refuse to even move the issue of local school boards forward," she said.
"The only thing that has changed in that one year is that there is a new governor."
One representative quoted by Lingle, Brian Schatz, D-25th (Makiki, Tantalus), wasted no time in offering an explanation. The local board concept he favored last year was the only option available, Schatz said yesterday after Lingle's news conference.
"Everybody in the Legislature as well as in the administration is talking about decentralizing the education system," he said. "The question is how and when to decentralize.
"Last year there was only one option on the table — the choice between seven local elected school boards, and doing nothing. Now there's a plan that does decentralize the Department of Education, and it does it immediately rather than in six years, which is how long the governor's plan would take to implement."
Schatz said he thinks the House bill is more effective and more immediate than Lingle's idea.
Lingle strongly disagrees about the effectiveness of the House bill. She is asking residents who agree with her to let their legislators know.
According to Russell Pang, chief of the governor's media relations, the OmniTrak Group poll was a random telephone survey of 700 residents on O'ahu, Hawai'i, Maui and Kaua'i Jan. 11-19.
Before the news conference yesterday, Lingle visited with third-graders at Hickam Elementary School and read from Dorothy Sarna Saurer's book. "The Gecko Who Wanted to Be Different," as part of the National Education Association's Read Across America Week.
Reach Will Hoover at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8038.
Correction: An OmniTrak Group poll on residents' opinions on education reform was taken Jan. 11-19. A previous version of this story gave an incorrect time period for the poll.
