Who should run our schools? What role should parents and other community members play in our schools? What is the proper role of state government and the various agencies within our government? How can we educate all students at higher levels? How can we ensure educational equity?

These questions are important, but they are not new. We struggle with them today because schooling needs to keep pace with dramatic societal changes.

It's like changing a tire on a moving car.

Because education is important, policy-makers have increasingly gotten involved. That is as it should be, but educators should have a voice, too.

Over the past decade, we have talked much more about accountability in education. Now, it's true that schools in America have always been held accountable, but primarily by local school boards.

The professional educators of Hawai'i — teachers, administrators and teacher educators — have been involved in education conversations, but until now we have not attempted to present a united voice to exert greater leadership and influence.

Shortly after the last legislative session, the leaders of the state Department of Education, the Hawaii State Teachers Association, the principals union, the Hawaii Association of Independent Schools, the Hawaii Teacher Standards Board and the University of Hawai'i College of Education began meeting to discuss how we could create a stronger, more united voice for educators.

We begin with an editorial partnership with The Honolulu Advertiser. Through an adjoining commentary and a series of others written by Hawai'i educators which will appear regularly in The Advertiser, we will present the professional educators' perspective — a "Voice of Education," if you will. It will be a perspective guided by research and best practices.

Our small group represents preschool through college educators who want to identify areas of consensus within the profession and to inform policy-makers as they make needed changes.