School boards issue is 'past'

By Gordon Y.K. Pang and Lynda Arakawa
Advertiser Capitol Bureau

Democratic lawmakers in both houses yesterday shot down attempts by Gov. Linda Lingle and Republicans to reignite the issue of local school boards.

Efforts to attach amendments with the Lingle plan onto unrelated bills were voted down in the House and Senate. The House vote was 33-18 to reject the amendment, with three Democrats joining the 15 Republican members in support. The Senate vote was 20-5 along party lines.

"We are past local school boards," said House Majority Leader Scott Saiki, D-22nd (McCully, Pawa'a). "Like it or not, we have gone beyond this issue."

The Republicans sought to revive the school board proposal during floor sessions that included House and Senate votes on scores of bills in preparation for tomorrow's "crossover" deadline. Bills must be returned to their originating houses by this deadline to stay alive.

This session's high-profile measures were exchanged earlier. They include the Democrats' education reform package, the omnibus ice bill and the $3.6 billion state budget.

In yesterday's debate on Lingle's school board plan, Saiki pointed to the results of a recent Honolulu Advertiser poll in which those surveyed ranked school boards below other ways to improve public schools.

The latest version of the governor's school board plan calls for voters to decide whether to amend the state constitution to establish four local school boards, one for each county. Lingle's original plan called for seven such panels.

Last week, the governor offered a "compromise" plan to the Democrats, who have repeatedly opposed establishing local school boards and have come up with their own education reform package.

Rep. Brian Blundell, R-10th (W. Maui), said four school boards would be particularly beneficial to parents and students on the Neighbor Islands, who often feel their priorities are neglected by the Department of Education's office on O'ahu.

Rep. Chris Halford, R-11th (S. Maui), said the amendment would allow all members of an island's school board to be known by its constituents. "Right now ... most of the Maui County voters really only know one board member and that's the board member from Maui," he said.

But House Education Chairman Roy Takumi, D-36th (Pearl City, Palisades), said that the language of the amendment would give the O'ahu school board too much responsibility and that "the research linking the size of a school district, in and of itself, with student achievement is highly dubious at best."

House Education Vice Chairman Mark Takai, D-34th (Pearl City, Newtown, Royal Summit), said Senate Bill 3238, the Democrats' main educational reform package that will be up for third reading tomorrow, is "going to revolutionize what is currently the Department of Education" while the amendment "does not do that."

There was also spirited debate in the House on the plan to allow counties to use fixed cameras along city streets to enforce speeding and red-light laws. Rep. Cynthia Thielen, R-50 (Kailua, Mokapu), said it would be ill-advised to resurrect the same technology of the "van cams" that angered motorists cited by cameras inside of vans parked along the shoulders of freeways and highways. Thielen called the latest proposal "the son of van cams."

Rep. Alex Sonson, D-35th (Waipahu, Crestview), said he opposes Senate Bill 2344 because of "my aversion to government intrusion to privacy. Having a camera there so offends me. I value (privacy) very much and I think I'm not alone in this."

Transportation Chairman Joe Souki, D-8th (Wailuku, Waiehu), said the measure would simply "provide counties the option" to address some of the public's concerns raised by recent traffic fatalities caused by speeding.

Transportation Vice Chairman Kirk Caldwell, D-24th (Manoa), said there may be no true substitute for more police officers on the road but that the city and the counties are fiscally constrained. "It's easier to state it than to actually do it," he said.

The bill advanced 33-18.

Other bills advanced yesterday and sent to their originating houses would:

• Place on November's ballot a constitutional amendment making the attorney general and insurance commission elected positions. The bill advanced 30-21. The final vote, assuming the bill makes it out of committee, would require a two-thirds majority of each house as do all constitutional amendment questions.
• Establish a public campaign financing program for House candidates who agree to abide by certain fund-raising and spending limits.
• Conform Hawai'i's wiretapping laws with federal provision, effectively easing certain restrictions for law-enforcement officials.
• Prohibit discrimination in housing based on sexual orientation.
• Allow a judge to revoke a driver's license if the motorist was speeding more than 90 mph and increase fines for repeatedly letting a car alarm sound for longer than five minutes.
• Increase the tobacco tax by 0.5 cent and earmark 1 cent of the tax on each cigarette sold to help pay for prevention and treatment programs for crystal methamphetamine.
• Prohibit the use of tobacco by public employees in public schools and at public-school functions, and require the state Department of Education to offer smoking cessation programs to interested employees.
• Require ethics training for legislators, Board of Education members, the governor, lieutenant governor, executive department heads and deputies, and Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustees.
• Require all hospitals to inform sex-assault victims about emergency contraceptives and provide them if requested unless the victim is pregnant. Hospitals that continue to ignore the requirement could be fined $1,000 in each instance.
• Require that 20 percent of the state's electricity be generated by renewable energy by 2020.

Reach Gordon Y.K. Pang at gpang@honoluluadvertiser.com. Reach Lynda Arakawa at larakawa@honoluluadvertiser.com. Or reach either at 525-8070.