Posted on: Thursday, January 22, 2004

Senate President Robert Bunda's opening-day speech

Aloha and welcome to the 2004 session of the Hawaii State Legislature.

I want to express my appreciation to the military for their effort on a battlefront closer to home. When the community of Wahiawa was threatened by an invasive aquatic weed that had the potential to destroy Lake Wilson, the military, as they have so often done before, came to our aid as neighbors and as allies. Salvinia molesta, or the green monster as it was called, was an extreme example of how a small problem can become a major one when allowed to grow out of control.

In an extraordinary display of cooperation among state, county, and federal agencies, the salvinia was extracted from the lake, one truckload at a time, and what was once thought a hopeless situation by some mainland experts, became a model of what could be achieved by cooperation and collaboration.

Ice

I would like to suggest that we can, and should, apply the same formula to some of the other problems facing our state today. Foremost among them is Hawaii's ice epidemic. Every violent crime today seems to be linked in one way or another to ice addiction. The Legislature took decisive action in forming a bipartisan task force to examine the scope of the epidemic and to recommend solutions. The task force came up with a comprehensive package of legislative proposals.

In the days ahead, let's focus on these solutions, which include substance abuse treatment for adults, early intervention and treatment for juveniles, expanded prevention beginning at the middle school level, support for an expanded Drug Court, and more effective coordination of law enforcement.

 For critics who claim spending money on prevention is a waste of time, I say this: When it comes to the safety of our children, our families, and our entire island community, we must devote adequate resources to the war on drugs or we will continue to lose ground. We must not let the issue turn into a public relations battle that has little to do with real solutions. Even the most ardent supporters of incarceration will admit that stricter punishment alone will not solve the drug crisis.

Education

The real solution is education.

The education of our children is crucial to the well-being of our society. Simply put, we cannot afford not to prepare our children for life in the 21st century. We, as a community, need to come together on the subject of reform.

Every state seems to be struggling with President Bush's No Child Left Behind law, the federal mandate that sets strict standards for academic performance, measured primarily by test scores. Consultants are having a field day advising school districts on how best to achieve reform and student success. Some school districts have become virtual guinea pigs for untested and unsubstantiated "reforms" that have yet to prove their worth.

Here at home, our own system is under constant attack as being ineffective. A call for a complete overhaul of the system is being touted as the only way to achieve true reform. Principals and teachers are being taunted for not caring more about their students than their own job security and faulted for not being willing to take risks.

To them I say, hold on and do not lose your enthusiasm for your profession. You are appreciated ... you are needed ... you are the ultimate solution to the crisis in our schools.

If there is any issue that deserves our complete and total focus, it is the subject of educational reform. Are we willing to take a chance with an experimental approach to educational governance before we are convinced it will work? To let political agendas dictate our decision-making would be dishonest. With so much at stake, how can we afford not to take the time to investigate any idea thoroughly before we make a decision. We need to look at all the evidence and we will.

All proposals for reform will soon be on the table. As you listen to testimony from students, parents, teachers and administrators, from business groups, and others, I ask that you keep an open mind and be receptive to all ideas and opinions. Ours is an inclusive process and no one is ever deliberately left out of the discussion. I warn you to be careful of evidence that appears to have been orchestrated more to support one particular point of view than to achieve true reform.

For those who argue that our schools are broken, I say our schools are working but need our support — not our scorn. To those who attempt to control and micromanage educational governance, I say we would be better served by stepping back and letting educators do their jobs. We need to trust the dedication of our teachers, and support the authority of our superintendent.

Some initiatives that we have seen elsewhere and which should be given our full consideration include a move towards smaller classes and smaller schools, raising the entry age for kindergarten and establishing universal preschool, increasing salaries and offering rewards for outstanding teachers and principals, providing full funding for charter schools, and boosting campus security and student safety.

Transportation

On this occasion last year, I expressed my frustration over our mounting traffic problems. With the number of registered vehicles on Oahu reportedly reaching one for just about every man, woman, and child, I am restating my support for a light-rail, mass-transit system linking our major urban centers.

And what relief can we offer motorists in the meantime? Again, we need to work together on all levels of government to focus on solutions. Contraflow lanes and modifications to existing roadways look promising. Let's rethink the traditional work day for state and city employees to reduce congestion during peak hours. Decentralizing government services out to Kapolei, Waikele, or Mililani would mean fewer cars on the road. Discussions should resume in earnest on the future of a West O'ahu campus that would take one of every four university students out of the commute from rural O'ahu to Manoa.

Consumer issues

Two nagging consumer issues will be under consideration this session. The first is an amendment to our gasoline cap legislation to peg prices to a nationwide survey of prices for all grades of gasoline and diesel. Prices of fuel remain abnormally high for motorists, and in the absence of any other meaningful attempts to stimulate competition or get satisfaction from oil companies, we will continue to work in this regard.

The second is our effort to address the high cost of prescription drugs. The Legislature will continue to refine our program, renamed Hawaii Rx Plus, so it can serve as many of our people as possible.

When all is said and done, our duty — our responsibility as elected officials — is to devise the best solutions possible to the concerns facing the people we serve. Like the victory on Lake Wilson, we arrive at those solutions by overcoming obstacles to working together and integrating our resources at the local, state, and federal levels. We have shown that we can work together to solve a crisis; let's build upon that foundation of cooperation and teamwork. This approach is effective; this approach is efficient; this approach is good government.