School reform ballot measure gets key support

By Derrick DePledge
Advertiser Education Writer

Key state House Democrats have agreed to push forward with a ballot question in November that would let voters decide whether to create local school boards, sending the measure to the full House for a vote today.

Democratic leaders on three House committees agreed yesterday to advance a bill backed by Gov. Linda Lingle to split apart the state Department of Education into local school districts with locally elected school boards. The bill also would replace the state Board of Education with an appointed standards and accountability commission.

Lawmakers first stripped out Lingle's preference for seven school boards and a seven-member commission, arguing that the specifics should remain open for debate.

The close votes by the House committees on education, the judiciary, and labor and public employment reflected the deep skepticism many Democrats still have about local school boards.

Republican lawmakers praised the decision, and Lingle called it an important step forward.

Last session, the majority Democrats killed a similar bill in committee. The Republican governor credited the public's interest in reform as the difference this session.

"There are a lot of steps in the process — this was an important one that we had to get over to get to the next step," Lingle told reporters. "But we're a long way from putting this on the ballot."

Committee lawmakers also advanced competing proposals favored by Democrats. One bill would expand the BOE from 13 to 17 voting members to make the state board more geographically representative. The other would establish elected school boards at every public school. These would be expanded versions of the existing School Community Based Management councils, and likely chosen by the school community, not the public at large.

Lingle and Democrats also are considering a new student spending formula that would direct money to schools based on students' individual needs instead of school enrollment. Next week, state schools superintendent Pat Hamamoto, BOE members and key lawmakers will travel separately to Edmonton, Alberta, where schools have thrived under a similar formula that leaves most spending decisions to school principals.

Apparent agreement on the new spending formula has been overshadowed, however, by the conflict over school governance.

Lingle has said local boards are critical to implementation of the new spending formula, because the local boards, rather than a centralized DOE, would oversee performance, leading to greater student achievement. But several Democrats have said there is no concrete link between local boards and student achievement.

State House Majority Leader Scott Saiki, D-22nd (McCully-Pawa'a), said he expected the House debate today to illustrate divisions among Democrats about the best approach.

If House lawmakers approve the bill today, it will go to the House Finance Committee for review, then back to the House for final passage. It will then go to the state Senate.

"It's going to be close," Saiki said.

State Rep. Brian Blundell, R-10th (W. Maui), said he believes Democrats will keep the debate over local boards alive, given public attention to the issue. "I think it will survive," he said.

The threshold for Lingle and the Republicans remains high: The school board change, like the

Democrats' alternatives, is a constitutional amendment requiring a two-thirds vote in the House and Senate before it reaches voters in November.

State Rep. Roy Takumi, D-36th (Pearl City, Palisades), chairman of the Education Committee, said he personally did not support local boards, but agreed to move the bill so other House lawmakers could have their say.

"In the end, this whole governance issue is far less important than the other things that focus on what works in the classroom," Takumi said.

He and other House committee leaders also successfully moved several other constitutional amendments related to education yesterday:

• To give the BOE more autonomy through greater control over the internal structure, management and operation of public schools.

• To allow 16-year-olds to serve on the BOE. The teenagers would not be able to vote in an election, but if elected would have full voting rights on the board, which would continue also to have a non-voting student member.

• To remove the governor's line-item veto power over school spending.

Several Republicans objected vigorously to the veto amendment, accusing Democrats of attempting to weaken the governor's power.

Democrats have said the governor still could restrict the release of education money, just not through the line-item veto.

"I think this particular measure is shameful," said state Rep. Barbara Marumoto, R-19th (Kaimuki, Kahala, Wai'alae Iki).

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