Educators want clearer picture of politicians' visions for reform

By Derrick DePledge
Advertiser Education Writer

Penny Mau, the principal at Mililani Uka Elementary School, usually starts her day around 6:30 a.m., catching up on paperwork and other administrative chores before her students arrive for class. She usually ends her day after dark, once she has knocked down some e-mails and returned phone calls.

Does she want more authority over her school? It depends. Would a locally elected school board shield her from state political pressures? Maybe.

But Mau wants to know more before she decides. "Unless I have the whole picture of how this will fit in with everything else that we do, I don't think I can comment," Mau said. "All of it needs to be clear."

Educators, parents and others who want Hawai'i's public schools to improve will soon have to make some important choices.

Gov. Linda Lingle and Democrats in the Legislature are bracing for another confrontation on education reform next year, and the outcome could determine the direction of public schools for the next decade or more. They have sketched basic outlines for change, but neither side has fully explained how reform would work or get students closer to the state's academic standards.

Citizens Achieving Reform in Education, the governor's advisory group, will hold public forums across the Islands this month. Determined not to let her reform agenda get derailed by Democrats, as in the last session, Lingle formed the group to build support for her plans. She hopes public pressure will persuade lawmakers to put the local school board question before voters in November 2004.

"We don't have all the answers, which is why we're encouraging people to come to the meetings to share their ideas," Lingle said in a statement. "But one thing is clear already: We can't just hope things get better."

Details missing

"I honestly don't think parents are informed enough about this to really know," said David Jorgensen, an attorney and president of the Parent Teacher Student Association for Wailuku Elementary School on Maui. "The concept of local school boards is wonderful, but it could mean a thousand different things."

Lingle's proposal, which could be amended after the forums, essentially dismantles the state Department of Education and rebuilds the system around a handful of local school districts governed by locally elected boards.

The school boards would oversee spending and policy issues and hold schools accountable for performance. A smaller DOE would retain administrative and oversight functions, and the governor likely would appoint a state school board, doing away with the elected Board of Education.

"The DOE as we know it now won't exist," said Randy Roth, Lingle's top education adviser.

The state also would move toward some type of weighted formula in which spending would be tied to student need, and money might follow a student to the school of choice.

Such a formula potentially has a more immediate impact on schools than local school boards, and could reshape spending patterns as more money goes to schools with students who are poor or have special learning needs.

Democrats and forces in labor and the DOE are embracing a weighted student formula because principals and teachers theoretically could end up with more resources for students having the most trouble in class.

Growing consensus on a new spending formula could sharpen the debate over local school boards and force the governor to justify why the boards are so important to reform.

Democrats are circulating drafts of their own reform package, which likely will focus on giving schools more autonomy and flexibility, some kind of weighted student formula, and direct teacher and community involvement through existing School Community Based Management councils. Democrats also may push for the expansion of the BOE to make it more geographically representative of the islands.

State Rep. Roy Takumi, D-36th (Pearl City, Palisades), chairman of the House Committee on Education, said he wants to hear from educators before taking a position on local school boards. "We're not convinced that this will lead to better student performance," he said. "I'm going to listen to people who know something about it first."

Implementation issues

Hawai'i's school system is unique in a country where most public schools are governed by local school districts and school boards. Reform movements have led to experiments in the past two decades, but urgency has grown with the federal No Child Left Behind law. Schools must find ways to improve student test scores or risk sanctions that could include restructuring under new staff.

Switching the system of governance might not lead immediately to success in the classroom, however. Local school boards can face the same political and bureaucratic challenges as other forms of government, educators say, and can be even more intrusive on the daily work of principals and teachers. Local school boards could give schools more freedom to respond to local matters, but schools still would be measured against state and federal standards.

"You have to look at your situation to see if local school boards fit," said Michael Resnick, associate executive director for the National School Boards Association in Alexandria, Va. "The question is whether there is the commitment and authority to get the job done."

Ronald Heck, chairman of the educational administration department at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa's College of Education, said local school boards would have to overcome a history of control by the governor and Legislature. "You'd have to change some fairly strong cultural and political traditions," he said. "Policy-makers tend to look for quicker kinds of fixes for problems that might be a lot more deep-seated."

The idea for local boards has been floated before — and backed by Democrats in the Legislature. Education reform was a key component of Lingle's campaign for governor, and proposals for local school boards have been debated in the past two legislative sessions, always with critical details missing.

Stan Kawaguchi, an engineer who chairs Lingle's reform committee, said he detected a strong desire for local control, from O'ahu to the Neighbor Islands. "If you go to the Neighbor Islands, you can really hear it," he said. "But you don't want to see seven or 10 or 12 big DOE's out there."

Lingle has made it clear she favors the local boards and wants the issue on the ballot next year, but the question is not settled even with her reform committee. Mike O'Neill, CEO of Bank of Hawaii, said he believes there is broad support for empowering principals and giving more authority to schools, but not necessarily for local school boards.

Jorgensen, on Maui, said local school boards make sense if they have real power over policy and budget. "But I don't have a clear understanding about where the money is going to come from," he said.

Denise Matsumoto, who represents Honolulu on the BOE, said she once advocated local school boards but now has doubts because they would have similar staffing and face the same demands from the state, labor unions and lawmakers that often frustrate the BOE.

"You can't promise the public local boards when it will basically be local boards with their hands tied," Matsumoto said. "There are so many unanswered questions, you can't just put it on the ballot. I think they didn't think everything through, and now they don't want to let go."

Reach Derrick DePledge at ddepledge@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8084.