ISLAND VOICES
Democrat plan calls for focus on student
By Rep. Scott Saiki
Scott K. Saiki represents McCully and Mo'ili'ili and is the House majority leader.
It's easy to identify the challenges of our public education system, as House Republican Leader Galen Fox did ("First step in reform is seeing problems," Oct. 19). The more significant task is to articulate solutions and specific ways to improve our system. This is what Rep. Fox fails to do.
No one has said that finding solutions will be an easy task. Our public education system consists of 183,629 students. Of that, 115,205 (or 62.7 percent) are economically challenged (they qualify for free or subsidized lunches), speak English as a second language and/or qualify for special-education services.
The Legislature has taken extraordinary measures in recent years to improve our schools by devolving decision-making to the local level. School/community-based management, charter schools, conversion schools and lump-sum budgeting, for example, are designed to place control in the hands of those closest to our campuses. However, we acknowledge that times have changed and we must do more.
House Democrats believe that change must focus on the smallest unit within our system: the school. All proposals to reform our system must be judged by whether they effectively direct resources and decision-making to the school level.
House Democrats will focus on two primary reforms. First, we will turn the education budgeting system on its head. Schools are currently funded through a cookie-cutter approach used by the Department of Education. We will implement a budgeting system that accounts for students' real and individualized needs. Funds will bypass the administrative bureaucracy and be sent directly to the school level.
Second, we will give principals complete control over their operating budgets. We will allow principals to spend based on the particular needs of their students and campuses. We will give principals the tools they need to meet student achievement standards.
Rep. Fox and the Republicans have reduced the issue of school reform to a simple slogan. Their solution is to "let the people decide." But the question they refuse to answer is: "Decide what?"
