Principals oppose Lingle reform plan

By Derrick DePledge
Advertiser Education Writer

The Hawai'i Government Employees Association, the union that represents principals and other school staff, will oppose Gov. Linda Lingle's call to break up the state Department of Education into seven districts with locally elected school boards.

The union's position is a blow to Lingle's education reform plans and follows decisions by the Hawai'i State Teachers Association, state Board of Education and state schools superintendent Pat Hamamoto to oppose local school boards.

"We are not in favor of that kind of change," said Randy Perreira, deputy executive director of the union. "There has been no evidence presented to show that it will improve student performance."

With the public school leadership against her, Lingle will have a tougher time convincing Democrats who control the state Legislature that local school boards are necessary to improve student achievement.

Lingle will ask lawmakers to put a constitutional amendment on the November ballot asking voters whether they want local school boards. Some key Democrats and the BOE have called for a ballot question on expanding the BOE from 13 to 17 elected members, each representing three state House districts. Randy Roth, Lingle's top education adviser, said the Lingle administration would appeal to lawmakers to put both questions on the ballot.

"We believe that people are not happy with the status quo," Roth said. "We believe they want change."

Such a move by the governor may shift the debate in the Legislature, at least initially, away from whether local school boards have merit and force lawmakers to determine whether voters should be able to choose, a much more politically sensitive decision.

With widespread public concern about education, Democrats risk being seen as barriers to reform if they refuse to go along, an uncomfortable position in an election year.

State House Majority Leader Scott Saiki, D-22nd (McCully, Pawa'a), said Democrats would focus on student achievement. He said the governor had not made it clear exactly how local school boards would lead to better student performance.

"We'll have to hear the governor's rationale," Saiki said. "But why should we just consider those two options when there might be other proposals?"

The principals' union does support, at least conceptually, a move to a new student spending formula that would direct money to schools based on student need instead of enrollment. The formula is the other main element in Lingle's reform plans, and with growing support among educators and lawmakers, it has a realistic chance of being considered this year.

But Lingle and her advisers have said the formula would not work within the structure of the DOE, which they believe is too top-heavy and bureaucratic to delegate money and control to schools successfully. Giving principals and schools more power over finance and decision-making are major recommendations of the governor's advisory committee, Citizens Achieving Reform in Education (CARE), which also backed local school boards to add greater community oversight.

Principals have been described as critical ingredients to reform, and their opposition to local school boards undermines Lingle's cause in the education community. The union took a similar position last year, but Perreira said principals reconsidered after the governor made the issue a priority and CARE held public forums across the state.

"A year has passed, and there has been no new evidence," Perreira said. "It's a political discussion; it's not a discussion to improve the kind of education kids get."

Dennis Hokama, principal at Roosevelt High School, said the question of school governance was not as urgent as finding resources to close performance gaps among students from different economic backgrounds.

Local school boards, the standard on the Mainland, could give more people a voice in school decisions, but Hokama said it would not change his school as much as money for more teachers and school resources. "It just somehow doesn't seem very convincing," Hokama said.

The teachers' union, meanwhile, released a six-point plan yesterday to improve student performance, from providing more resources for teachers and schools to hiring teachers to end classroom overcrowding. The union backs a new student spending formula in theory, but also would like to add new coordinating committees at the DOE's school complexes and strengthen School Community Based Management councils.

The teachers' union also is calling for universal preschool and a new statewide policy that no student be promoted before mastering skills at the third grade level, in an attempt to intervene with students having difficulty well before middle and high school, where the social consequences for failing are greater.

Roger Takabayashi, president of the teachers' union, said the proposals were aimed at low-income students, who often are not as well-prepared for school as others.

"It will probably affect them most," he said. "Our teachers feel very strongly about this."

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