EDITORIAL
How to empower school 'reinvention'

One of the promises contained in Hawai'i Schools Superintendent Pat Hamamoto's well-received speech at the Legislature this year was an education summit, part of a push by the state Department of Education to "reinvent" public schools.

The summit, comprising educators, parents and community leaders from across the state, convenes at Kapolei High School tomorrow.

Required reading for this summit, we believe, appears on the other side of this page. It's a report from a quietly productive community group called the University of Hawai'i at Manoa/Community Partnership (UCP) on the importance to education reform of a reinvigorated corps of school principals — and what must be done to achieve it.

One of the best hopes for real movement in school reform this year is for opposing camps to recognize that there's a large area of agreement between them. We urge them to put the differences aside for now and get moving on the rest.

This certainly includes a desire to give principals more power over their schools. As we're sure you'll agree, the UCP report adds a lot to that discussion.