Education reform bill tweaked

By Derrick DePledge
Advertiser Education Writer

Democratic leaders are fine-tuning their education reform package, responding to educators who have said that any change should be linked to student achievement.

ROTH

TAKUMI

"Anyone who says what we are proposing is tinkering around the edges should read the bill," state Rep. Roy Takumi, D-36th (Pearl City, Palisades), the chairman of the House Education Committee, told the Advertiser's editorial board yesterday.

The revisions come a week after the House voted against Gov. Linda Lingle's plan to split the state Department of Education into local school districts with elected boards and replace the state Board of Education with a statewide standards and accountability commission.

On the surface, Democrats and Lingle agree on a new student spending formula that would be based on individual student need instead of school enrollment and would give principals more power over budget and curriculum.

But Lingle's advisers and supporters have increasingly questioned the Democrats' commitment to moving power from the DOE to schools, and claim that history has shown that Democrats and the DOE will stop well short of reform.

Democrats nearly approved local school boards in 2002 and, a decade ago, the DOE was seriously considering a similar student spending formula.

Lingle's supporters want Democrats to spell out exactly how much money and control they intend to transfer to schools.

"They just don't believe in decentralization," said Randy Roth, Lingle's education policy adviser.

Takumi said he has heard the same complaints, and told the Advertiser yesterday, "I don't know how to emphasize that I'm serious about this."

State Rep. K. Mark Takai, D-34th (Pearl City, Newtown, Royal Summit), described this legislative session as "a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

Like Lingle, Democrats believe the new spending formula cannot exist in a vacuum. But instead of local school boards, they want to expand the BOE from 13 to 17 voting members to make it more geographically representative and empower existing School Community Based Management councils.

The biggest difference between today's SCBMs and the new councils would be in the potential to influence a school's budget and curriculum, Democrats say, because schools would have much greater control over those decisions under the new spending formula.

The new councils would collaborate with school principals, and disagreements would be settled by a mediator or, ultimately, the BOE. Parents would elect parent and community representatives to the councils; teachers and school staff would elect teachers; and students would elect other students.

The councils would identify goals — for example, an improvement in math or reading scores — and build three-year plans to get results. Takumi also said yesterday that he would like to spend $2.1 million to add more teachers in the kindergarten-though-second grades to lower some class sizes, because research has connected smaller class size to student performance.

State Rep. Marilyn Lee, D-38th (Mililani, Mililani Mauka), who has been participating in SCBMs since shortly after they were created by the Legislature in 1989, said the new councils could get closer to the original intent of the law. The consensus among educators is that SCBMs have failed to live up to the promise of local control.

"It's going to give the SCBMs a lot more power," Lee said. "It's going to become what we thought it would become."

But others see flaws.

Doug Thomas, a junior ROTC teacher at Kaimuki High School who serves on the Mililani Neighborhood Board, said the idea only pays lip-service to local control.

"I don't think it's going to make any difference at all," he said.

Roth and other Lingle supporters say that expanded SCBMs could have more of an inclination to micro-manage schools than local school boards do, because they are, in essence, part of the school.

Dennis Hokama, the principal at Roosevelt High School, said he prefers expanded SCBMs to local school boards because he still would have a strong role, but would rather not be forced into either option.

Roosevelt is one of just 27 DOE schools without an SCBM.

"Would we be better off today if we had an SCBM? I don't think so," Hokama said. "Some of my best parents are the ones who shake their heads when it comes to SCBM.

"They understand that it can be used by special interests to make it hard on everyone else."

For Hokama and some other principals, the notion of a new layer of oversight, whether it be from a school council or a local school board, is in conflict with talk from Lingle and Democrats that principals should be the ultimate leaders accountable for their schools.

"It could create a tremendous new burden on me," Hokama said. "I would be very uncomfortable about being able to exert my authority."

Senate Democrats, meanwhile, are proceeding on a track similar to that of the House, and leaders of the two chambers are optimistic that a comprehensive package will emerge by the end of the session.

Republicans, who do not have the votes to stop the Democrats, have said they will keep the local school board issue alive and — if they eventually lose — will use it as a political theme against Democrats in November.

"We're going to remind voters how the Legislature went during the session," said Brennon Morioka, the state GOP chairman. "It's an issue that we feel very strongly in."

But there also is some risk for Lingle and the Republicans.

There is recognition among lawmakers from both parties that Lingle, with her intense focus on education, has created a climate where reform is not only possible, but likely. But if the Lingle administration becomes so fixated on local school boards that Republicans dismiss other significant change — such as the new student spending formula — voters could take it out on them.

A lot may depend on which side wins the public relations battle over the next few months and is able to define the end result.

Melody Tolentino, who has two children in public schools in Mililani, said she would be discouraged if politics interferes.

"I'd like to finally see some common sense," she said. "We can't progress as a state if we don't train these kids."

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