EDITORIAL
New Year brings challenges to Hawai'i

The year 2004 dawns in Hawai'i on a far more optimistic note than it has for years.

As outlined in a special business outlook section last Sunday, almost all the economic indicators for the Islands are up. Hawai'i expects to outpace the Mainland in most of them in the coming year. Understandably, confidence is returning to the business community.

Much of this confidence comes from a surge of construction, buoyed by low interest rates and a massive schedule of military projects focused on housing.

In short, the year holds bright promise. Yet we continue to face major challenges in public education, in dealing with the homeless, on Hawaiian issues and in the entire spectrum of healthcare, from rising insurance rates to long-term-care needs of the elderly.

How we deal with these issues will say much about ourselves as a society and as a state in 2004.

Here's a quick look at The Advertiser's hopes and expectations for 2004 in several key areas:

Education

We look for a public school system in which each teacher, school and school complex is empowered to educate in ways that best meet the needs of their students. This means more autonomy and authority for individual principals and greater community involvement in the operations of our public schools.

It does not necessarily mean, however, that we have to break up our single statewide school system. And however governance is determined, we should maintain our system of equitable statewide funding and broad statewide educational standards.

It is obvious that the success of each part of our school system depends on the success of all other parts. We support the K-20 concept of a smoothly integrated educational system from kindergarten through the university experience.

In fact, educational success begins even earlier than kindergarten. Hawai'i should not let 2004 pass without serious progress toward a universal pre-school system.

At the University of Hawai'i, we must not let politics or conflicting priorities cause us to slide back from the major gains we have made toward true university autonomy. But with autonomy comes responsibility to be open and accountable on spending and educational decisions.

Economy

In no other area are the opportunities and challenges so evenly balanced.

We want an economy that avoids the boom-and-bust cycles of the past. The goal is steady, sustainable growth.

This will require policy-makers in both the public and private sector to think ahead to the educational, workforce and physical requirements that will provide that sustainable economy.

We must also plan ahead on the social, environmental and human impact that a surging economy will have. It is not enough to make money if it comes at excessive physical or social costs.

While the immediate boom is in construction and housing, we want to see a stronger emphasis on diversification into agriculture, bio-technology, some aspects of high-tech and a "reinvented" model for tourism that moves us beyond the "sun-and-sand" mentality.

With new economic opportunities emerging, we need to go back and revisit laws, regulations and land-use policies that were designed at a time the goal was to simply tame the pace of rampant growth. Some of these may no longer be needed while others can remain valuable if adjusted and focused on today's needs.

For example, while we see a continued need for a statewide land-use commission, it may be time to review policies so that it truly functions at the level of statewide vision while the counties pick up more of the short-term land-use decisions.

Health

Hawai'i has slipped somewhat from its long-held goal of being a state where everyone has adequate healthcare coverage. That trend must be reversed.

Accomplishing this will be tricky because of the complicated web of federal and state regulations under the Pre-Paid Health Care Act. But it has become clear that the requirements of the act have become so expensive that some employers are looking for ways to avoid the law rather than extend its coverage.

Part of the cost issue is the growing list of well-meant but not always affordable "extras" that have been added to the basic package.

As a community, we must decide if we want to move toward a narrow "Cadillac" system enjoyed by a relative few or a more basic "Chevrolet" system that covers all our citizens.

While the discussion of the prepaid law goes forward, there are other things that can be done to help offset costs for small businesses, including tax credits, cost-sharing or a "circuit breaker" system in which insurance costs are held to a percentage of payroll.

On long-term care, the state must sit down and work with private industry on a plan that will work and that we can afford. We have wasted too many years debating how to deal with what is surely one of the biggest social issues facing these aging Islands.

Homeless

Through both anecdotal observation and scientific sampling, it has become apparent that our homeless population is growing. This is not a healthy thing for our economy or for the social well-being of our Island 'ohana.

This should be a community where no one is forced into homelessness. It will take a multipronged and, yes, expensive effort to bring our homeless situation under control.

This means expanding innovative, supportive housing programs, finishing work on the city's proposed centralized homeless "campus," making use of underutilized facilities such as those at Barbers Point and revising what may be unanticipated side-effects of welfare "reform."

What good is reform that simply turns people with needs into the streets?

There are many other issues we should resolve this year, including getting a handle on drug abuse, improving our public transportation system, finding acceptable training areas for our military, making long-overdue fixes to our campaign financing system and more.

In every case, this calls for communitywide dedication to dealing with our problems, taking advantage of opportunities and preserving the unique social and physical qualities that make these Islands the finest place on Earth.