By Lee Cataluna
Advertiser Columnist

A few years back the catch phrase among television news consultants was "No BOPSA!", bopsa being an acronym for "bunches of people sitting around."

The thought was that television news thrives on action and that story after story featuring commissions, meetings, hearings, informational briefings, press conferences and board rooms would bore news viewers to death.

"Let's show people doing something!" the consultants said. "Let's see action!"

By its very nature, the Legislature is bunches of people sitting around. When our lawmakers make "sweeping changes" or take "bold action," it's usually no more dramatic than the swoop of a pen or the rap of a gavel.

And that's fine. Just as long as the sitting-around, talking-about stuff leads to decisive, thoughtful action.

The trouble starts when the only action taken by the bunches-of-people-sitting-around-talking-about-stuff is to create more bunches-of-people-sitting-around-talking-about-stuff. Like locally elected school boards.

"Let me make a prediction," said House Speaker Calvin Say on the opening day of the Legislature. "More school boards will bring more bureaucracy and reduce already strained resources in our classrooms."

OK. I'm busted agreeing with Calvin Say.

How could local school boards be anything more than bunches-of-people-sitting-around-talking-about-stuff? Coming up with more rules and regulations and requirements and procedures. Making teachers' jobs more complex, more frustrating, more about social work and less about education. Dreaming up new and better ways to gum up the system. Arguing the fine, fine, superfine points of what to teach and how to teach it.

What each school needs is not yet another body politic, but an action crew. A job squad. Bunches of people ready to move.

Imagine a group of dedicated volunteers ready to respond to a call for help from their specific school. We need a fund-raiser for the science club! BAM! Stacks of Zippy's chili tickets appear. We need a Christmas tree for the cafeteria. BAM! A 15-foot Douglas fir shows up in the back of a pickup truck. We need tutors for the after-school reading program. BAM! Twenty kupuna show up. And they bring their own books.

Truth is, many schools in Hawai'i are blessed with an army of dedicated volunteers who are willing to give of their time and talent whenever called upon. But too often, their best efforts are hampered by the tangled spaghetti of regulations and the twisted maze of procedures. There's the long list of things the volunteers would love to do to help the school, then there's the much shorter list of things they're allowed to do.

Yes, more local input in schools. Yes, empower principals. But the last thing the Department of Education needs is more bureaucracy.

Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com.