Lingle links achievement with local school districts

By Derrick DePledge
Advertiser Education Writer

Gov. Linda Lingle told House lawmakers yesterday that local school districts would lead directly to higher student achievement, but Democrats and a Hawai'i researcher questioned that conclusion.

The governor, speaking at the new legislative session's first public hearing on reform, said local school districts, along with smaller class sizes, are superior to Hawai'i's unique statewide school district.

"Both are true and any attempt to pit one against the other proposes a false choice," Lingle told members of the state House Education Committee and the state House Judiciary Committee.

The governor again asked lawmakers yesterday to put a question on the November ballot breaking up the state Department of Education into seven school districts with locally elected boards. A state standards and accountability commission would replace the existing state Board of Education.

Democrats have said they are not convinced that local school boards would lead to better student performance, and Lingle's comments responded to that issue directly.

Despite the escalating political debate over the past few months, yesterday's hearing lacked fireworks, with lawmakers delving into the complicated issues of school governance and hearing testimony for nearly four hours.

State House Rep. Roy Takumi, D-36th (Pearl City, Palisades), the chairman of the Education Committee, said the committee could vote next Friday on whether to put the school board issue on the ballot, along with a proposal favored by Democrats to expand the BOE from 13 to 17 voting members to make it more geographically representative of the state.

State House Rep. Eric Hamakawa, D-3rd (Hilo, Kea'au, Mountain View), the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said his committee could also vote Friday, setting down the first markers on an issue that could dominate much of the session.

Neither Takumi nor Hamakawa would tip their hands, but the question of whether local school boards lead to greater student achievement could become crucial for lawmakers who have yet to commit.

State schools superintendent Pat Hamamoto has said she wants to make public schools smaller, either through schools-within-schools or smaller class sizes that maximize the interaction between teachers and students.

Laura H. Thielen, a BOE member who also is part of the governor's advisory committee, Citizens Achieving Reform in Education, cited several studies yesterday that found that smaller school districts are more beneficial to students and could help reduce the long-standing achievement gap between low-income and middle- to higher-income students.

Although the studies presented by Thielen varied on the optimum number of students in a school district, the researchers tended to recommend districts of between 2,000 and 15,000 students. Splitting the DOE into seven school districts in Hawai'i would likely result in districts of between 10,000 students, on Kaua'i, and 38,000 students, on the Leeward Coast.

Thielen said local districts with local school boards would lead to closer relationships between school leaders and elected school officials than the existing statewide board. "They are more efficient. They are more effective," she said.

But Jim Shon, of the Hawai'i Educational Policy Center, a research group, told lawmakers that the research on smaller school districts and student achievement is not conclusive. He said that smaller districts, combined with smaller schools and other reforms, could make a difference among students, but the districts would have to be smaller than what is now being considered in Hawai'i. He added that local boards, the norm on the Mainland, are more of a political than an educational issue.

Shon said many educators are concerned that all the attention to school boards might delay action on other proposals that could improve public education, from high-quality preschools to schools-within-schools to better recruiting and training of teachers and administrators.

Outside the hearing, Shon had a much harsher take on Lingle's and Thielen's claims. "It's just purely inaccurate," he said.

The DOE and the BOE, according to the governor, would have major roles in a two-year process as the state establishes the school boards and creates a new student-spending formula that gets money to schools based on student need.

"I don't want anyone to think that the change we are proposing is an easy one," Lingle said.