EDITORIAL
Education measure can be road to success
Gov. Linda Lingle and many of those close to her vision of education reform are clearly unhappy with a "reinvention" education package prepared by Democrats in the state Legislature.
They charge that Democrats have taken a few of her ideas and some of her rhetoric and have come up with a package that is more smoke and mirrors than genuine reform.
That's an argument that will be settled in time. Our sense is that the Democratic effort is a sincere attempt to deal with several key educational issues and respond to what the Hawai'i Poll, among others, has found to be key concerns, such as classroom size and textbooks.
What would be a tragedy, however, is if the two sides continue to put their energy into the political battle over who is best attuned to school reform rather than focusing on making our schools work.
In effect, it is time to call a truce.
Lingle can easily take credit for driving the conversation about reform. Empowering principals, weighted student funding, local control — all are issues Lingle pushed and which are part of a package Democrats have produced.
Some fault the Democrats for failing to simply accept the administration package lock, stock and barrel. Senate Minority Leader Fred Hemmings, for instance, calls the Democratic response a "facade."
We disagree. But it is true that the ultimate test will come not so much in the wording of the bill but in the commitment to make it work.
If it turns out that this is simply another excuse for DOE administrators to seize control of events, order studies and appoint people to look into alternatives, it will fail.
If, however, there is a serious effort to shift true educational authority to principals, if the money for smaller classrooms and better textbooks continues to flow, if school budgets are truly built on student need and if local school councils are truly empowered to reflect community values, these changes could work.
Come election season, Lingle can take credit for kick-starting a major change in public education. Democrats can take credit for listening and coming up with a program that responded to public demands.
And what, one might ask, is wrong with that?
