Democrats call for expanding Board of Education
By Derrick DePledge
Advertiser Education Writer
State House and Senate Democrats unveiled details of their education reform plans yesterday, calling for the expansion of the state Board of Education to make it more geographically reflective of the Islands and stronger school-based management councils that involve parents and students.
The education package, drafted by Democrats during the past few months, is similar in several aspects to the outline of reform favored by Gov. Linda Lingle, indicating important common ground on an issue that both parties have made a priority this year.
But the dividing line remains sharp, especially over Lingle's push to break up the state Department of Education into seven districts with locally elected school boards. Many top Democrats either oppose local school boards or have serious doubts about whether local boards will lead to better schools and improved student test scores.
Lingle said Wednesday that she would remind the public that many Democrats have voted for local school boards in the past, suggesting that the only difference is that they are dealing with a Republican governor. Democrats responded yesterday by noting that Lingle has also changed her mind, on issues such as prescription drug coverage, and said they would judge local school boards by whether they would help students learn.
"This is about doing the right thing," said Senate President Robert Bunda, D-22nd (North Shore-Wahiawa).
Democrats likely will back a ballot question for the November elections on expanding the BOE from 13 to 17 voting members, with each member elected to represent three state House districts. The BOE also favors such an expansion, which is in response to critics who see the Honolulu-based board as distant from many communities.
"People would have a better connection to their representatives on the state board," said Sen. Norman Sakamoto, D-15th (Waimalu, Airport, Salt Lake), the chairman of the Senate Education Committee.
Lingle and other school-board advocates have said that expanding the BOE is proposing more of the same bureaucracy and top-down management that fails schools today. But Lingle will ask that lawmakers put both questions on the ballot and give voters the choice.
Democrats and Lingle want to have a new student-spending formula based on student need, rather than enrollment, and give principals more control over money and academic decisions at their schools. Such a formula could transform school finance by shifting power from the DOE down to local schools.
Lingle is expected to provide more details of her reform plans Monday during her State of the State speech, and some Democrats said yesterday that they will be listening closely for a more compelling case for local boards. State schools superintendent Pat Hamamoto will discuss her thoughts on reform, which will likely focus on what works in the classroom, in an address to lawmakers on Wednesday.
But while Democrats have criticized Lingle for not providing more detail, they had not stood unified behind a specific reform plan until yesterday, and some of their proposals are works-in-progress that, like local school boards, have not been directly linked to student achievement.
Democrats want to strengthen existing School Community Based Management councils, which they believe would give communities more direct influence over schools than local boards would.
Rep. Roy Takumi, D-36th (Pearl City-Palisades), said he would make the councils mandatory at every school so that teachers, parents, students and members of the community could have input on school decisions. The council members would be chosen from stakeholders within a school and community, but Takumi said it has not been determined how the makeup of the councils would differ, if at all, from what exists today.
The school councils were first created by the Legislature in 1989 during a similar movement toward local control, but many educators believe the councils have yet to realize full potential. The councils, now in all but 27 DOE schools, have worked extremely well in some communities but are in disarray in others, and usually depend on the level of commitment of those who choose to get involved.
Takumi predicts the councils would flourish if schools were given more control over finance and curriculum. "They haven't been given the resources, the money," he said.
Citizens Achieving Reform in Education, Lingle's advisory committee, found that the councils can provide school-level advice but would need administrative support to monitor school finance, which could be expensive if repeated at every school.
CARE also argues that it would be a conflict of interest to let a school council evaluate a school's own financial management, and that local school boards would be better suited for that kind of oversight role.
Tim McGivern, the chairman of the council at Wailupe Valley Elementary School, wonders whether the volunteer councils have the expertise to take on such responsibility. "There are a lot of specific issues at the school that we don't have the capability of assessing in great detail," he said.
Arthur Kaneshiro, the principal at 'Aiea Elementary School, said he doubts real change can occur until the government structure — whether it be the BOE, local boards or strengthened councils — becomes more about collaboration and less about power.
"How are you going to empower people when you're telling them what to do?" said Kaneshiro, who was involved with the councils from the start. "It's about how you relate to people."
Democrats also proposed a Principals Academy to train administrators for greater responsibility and, in a move welcomed at the DOE, urged that the state sever administrative ties between the DOE and other state departments to make it more independent.
Reach Derrick DePledge at ddepledge@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8084.
