Lingle turns school reform hopes to Senate

By Derrick DePledge
Advertiser Education Writer

Gov. Linda Lingle said yesterday that state House lawmakers showed a lack of faith in voters by refusing to put a question on the November ballot creating local school boards, a move that severely diminishes its chances this session.

The House voted late Friday against a constitutional amendment that would have split the state Department of Education into local school districts with elected boards. The bill would also have replaced the state Board of Education with an appointed standards and accountability commission.

"Without fundamental changes to dissolve the Department of Education, principals in schools will not have control over the money they need to improve student success," Lingle said.

Democratic leaders gave the issue a hearing and a full debate in the House, but the bill has so far received a cooler reception in the Senate.

State Sen. Norman Sakamoto, D-15th (Waimalu, Airport, Salt Lake), chairman of the Senate Education Committee, said yesterday that Lingle and her supporters would have a chance to make their case before the session ends.

The House decision to squash Lingle's plans could quickly alter the political dynamics on education reform, one of the prime issues facing lawmakers this session. For the past several months, as Lingle took her appeals for local school boards directly to the public, the pressure has been mostly on the governor to explain how local boards would improve the state's underachieving public schools.

Now that House Democrats have blocked Lingle, the burden is on Democrats to convince voters that they can produce meaningful change. "I think we're up to the challenge," said state Rep. Roy Takumi, D-36th (Pearl City, Palisades), chairman of the House Education Committee.

Sakamoto and Takumi will join state schools superintendent Pat Hamamoto and BOE chairman Breene Harimoto this week on a trip to Edmonton, Alberta, to study schools there that have developed a student spending formula that allows principals to control most school spending decisions. State Rep. Guy Ontai, R-37th (Mililani, Waipi'o), and BOE member Laura H. Thielen, who serves on the governor's education advisory committee, are also going to Edmonton.

House Democrats moved forward Friday with their version of a new formula, which would direct money to schools based on the individual characteristics of students rather than student enrollment. Students with special needs, such as those with physical or mental disabilities or those still learning English, would have higher weights than average students.

With Democrats and Lingle behind a new formula — which by itself could bring fundamental change to schools — the session could be ripe for an agreement that both parties could celebrate as an accomplishment.

But Thielen said the question remains whether Democrats are willing to take power and money away from the central DOE and give it to schools, as she said the governor would do.

Takumi said Democrats will proceed with a measure that advanced Friday that would empower existing School Community Based Management councils by giving the councils more oversight over school budgets and curriculum. He said each school should have the flexibility to design its own council that best represents the school's community.

"That's really where the change is going to take place, at the school, in the classroom," Takumi said.

He added that he has shifted from an earlier commitment to put a school governance question on the November ballot, although other Democrats might choose to back constitutional amendments that inched forward on Friday. One of the amendments would create local boards — really expanded SCBMs — at every school, but that could be adopted by the Legislature without a ballot question.

Sakamoto said he favors an amendment to expand the BOE from 13 to 17 voting members to make the state board more geographically representative. Each board member would represent roughly three state House districts.

Lingle and other school board advocates indicated yesterday that they intend to rebound from the House setback and will continue to argue that local boards are needed for reform. But they will also attempt to shape a new student spending formula in talks with Democrats.

"I just believe there is a lot of support for this out there," state Rep. Colleen Meyer, R-47th (Ha'iku, Kahalu'u, La'ie), said of local school boards. "It's not dead."

Other Republicans were angry. State House Minority Leader Galen Fox, R-23rd (Waikiki, Ala Moana, Kaka'ako), said in a statement yesterday that Democrats seem determined to protect the DOE from any serious effort to get power to schools.

"It's war, and these folks at the top defend their castle with everything they've got," Fox said. "Unfortunately, it's the students in the schools who lose when the big guys downtown hang on to power."

House Democrats had been meeting privately within their caucus in the days leading up to the vote, conscious that the issue was politically sensitive and could influence voters in House and Senate elections in November.

State House Majority Leader Scott Saiki, D-22nd (McCully-Pawa'a), said many Democrats had been contacted by school principals and teachers from their districts who opposed local boards. Other Democrats were not convinced by Lingle's belief that smaller districts with local boards would lead to higher student achievement, since the available research is either inconclusive or relates mostly to school districts that are much smaller than what is being proposed for Hawai'i.

In the hours before the vote, over Filipino food in their caucus room off the House floor, the outcome became apparent. "We told them, 'Vote your conscience,' " Saiki said.

Several educators, who had stayed until midnight to watch the debate unfold from the House gallery, cheered when the final tally was announced. But people who support Lingle's plan were upset that the House made the choice on local boards for them.

Cheryl Zarbaugh, of Kaimuki, a mechanic for Aloha Airlines, said she would remember those lawmakers in November. "It's definitely going to affect the way I vote," she said. "The people in office just don't seem to want change."

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