Posted on: Sunday, January 2, 2005
EDITORIAL
In 2005, we must tackle issues head-on
The year 2005 dawns on what must be considered a bright note for Hawai'i.
Our economy looks strong, with good performances expected in several areas — particularly tourism and construction.
There are signs that the community has learned to rally itself to solve some of our most intractable problems, including ice addiction, education and homelessness. A small thing perhaps, but our spirits have been lifted by inspiring performances from "our" sports teams, including the UH men's basketball team, the football Warriors and the awesome Wahine volleyball team.
Indeed, the greatest danger facing Hawai'i in 2005 might be, to paraphrase Pogo, ourselves. Over the years, one of Hawai'i's greatest failings has been a tendency to relax, let down our guard and assume that things will simply take care of themselves.
This tendency has been fed by the fact that, well, things have tended to take care of themselves. The boom of statehood was followed by a boom in construction, followed by the Japanese tourism and investment "bubble" followed by ... you get the point. We have not been truly required to take hold of our own destiny, in part because other events, other actors, have done it for us.
The terrible catastrophe that swept through the Indian Ocean a week ago shows how shallow such thinking can be. At any moment, our fortunes can be reversed, our good luck wiped out by a whim of nature or an arbitrary decision somewhere by someone.
Imagine, for instance, if a terrorist group decided Hawai'i would be a useful symbolic location for its next strike. The point here is not to be unnecessarily gloomy or pessimistic. Far from it. The point is that it is just as important to prepare for good times as it is to prepare for disaster.
The examples of a tsunami or a terrorist attack are instructive on this front. As news stories have pointed out in recent days, Hawai'i has one of the best and most up-to-date tsunami warning systems on the planet. We know what destruction these waves can create, and we have set in place a high-tech system designed to protect us from the worst of such disasters. This is a case where we are not simply waiting for the future; we are preparing for it.
The same on the terrorist front. In the wake of 9/11, the nation has launched a massive effort to boost its homeland security preparations. In Hawai'i (although there has been some criticism), this has taken the shape of much better coordination and communication among and between existing agencies, ranging from the military and local police, to the Civil Defense system and private agencies such as the Red Cross.
As in the case of terrorism, the pros are not simply waiting for the future, they are preparing for it. There is no reason we cannot be as proactive and aggressive in other areas, ranging from education and workforce development through environmental protection and beefing up our somewhat tattered social safety net. And what better time to do it than when conditions are good and we have the money and optimism to make it happen?
In short, 2005 is the year to seize our own destiny and lay the groundwork for a successful future in several areas, including:
Education
In fact, the groundwork-laying in this area began in 2004, with the passage of Act 51 — the "Reinventing Education Act" — by the state Legislature. This law adopts a new weighted student-funding formula, grants greater academic and financial authority to local schools and puts needed, if still inadequate, stress on the basics of quality classrooms and adequate textbooks.
Now, no one argues that Act 51 in and by itself is the answer to the troubles that have plagued our public school system for years. In fact, some critics contend it is phony reform, designed really to protect the status quo. We don't buy that, nor should the public.
The year 2005 should be a time when the public — from parents of school-age children through the business community — hold policymakers and educators to their promise. Our schools must improve. We do not expect overnight success. But there must be measurable signs of direct, solid improvement in education as seen in the classroom. This means more textbooks, safer, more comfortable classrooms, enough qualified teachers to meet the demands of a 21st-century education and an end to the political gamesmanship that has held back our schools for far too long.
The public already has said it is willing to pay for such improvements, if higher taxes are tied directly to specific educational changes. So let's get with it.
If we cannot get improvement now, those in charge should step out of the way and allow others to take the helm.
Directly related to school improvement is early-childhood education.
There is no reason why the year 2005 cannot be remembered as the year Hawai'i embraced what will become a national model for universal quality preschool education for every child. The outlines are already in place with the state's "Pre-Plus" program and the P-through-20 education initiative.
The research in this area is quite clear: Youngsters who are exposed to a quality preschool experience do better in school and, indeed, in life. Universal preschool does not come cheap. Absolutely. But what better investment can we make? And it is absolutely certain that every dollar invested in early education will pay off multifold in the form of a better educated citizenry and reduced social problems.
Long-term care
At the other end of the spectrum is an equally difficult, equally expensive but equally important matter: long-term care for the elderly. There's been a lot of talk about the need for a quality long-term care program. But this never seems to get much past the idea stage.
The cost implications of setting up such a system sends policymakers (and yes, all of us) running for cover. The issue will not go away. That huge bulge of baby boomers is reaching retirement age and will soon not simply need quality long-term care; it will demand it. Will we be ready?
Putting even the bones of a long-term-care program into place will be expensive and wrenching. But every day, month or year that the decision is put off makes the effort just that much more expensive and that much more wrenching.
What is needed in 2005 is a comprehensive, high-level public-private partnership effort to develop the outlines of a quality long-term-care system for the Islands. A model, or prototype, may be found in the public-private initiative that is pushing the new UH Cancer Research Center.
Economy
This is an area that, at first glance, appears to be taking care of itself. Tourism is on a roll and construction is booming, fueled by a strong private housing market and a multibillion-dollar slate of military construction projects. But our economic strength, while real, is fragile.
An arbitrary decision by someone in Tokyo or Washington could easily turn things around. Just imagine, for a moment, if U.S. Sen. Dan Inouye were replaced in his senior position by someone who did not happen to have Hawai'i's interests first in his mind. Or if the Japanese government decided, as it did after the first Gulf War, to advise its citizens not to travel overseas for the time being.
It is imperative we take some of the gains from the current boom and invest them in the future. What does this mean? It means substantive and sustained investment in job training, retraining and workforce development.
We should be developing quality workers for today's demands and for the future. And by this, we mean more than hotel maids, kitchen workers and construction laborers. We need a highly skilled workforce with technical expertise, language skills and energy that will be more than ready for the economy of tomorrow.
This represents a classic case of either grabbing hold of our own destiny or allowing someone else to choose for us. The federal government has already launched a new visa-waiver program to bring in highly skilled tech workers from India and elsewhere to fill gaps in the domestic workforce.
We can fill those gaps with our own bright young people, if they are given the proper educational tools and training.
We need a workforce whose drug of choice is success.
Achieving this will, again, require a true public-private partnership, the outlines of which are fortunately already in place at the University of Hawai'i and through the unions.
Training tomorrow's workforce is an expense, true, but it is also an investment in a sustainable economy that will ride past the next boom-and-bust cycle. A sustainable economy also demands — and by now, this is a cliché — a diversified economy. But diversified in what way?
Yes, we will have high tech. But so will every other economy, and we are not likely to be the next Silicon Valley. What we can do is leverage our own natural advantages, which include our mid-Pacific location, the diversity of our population and our obvious suitability for scientific research in areas ranging from biotech, astronomy and ocean exploration through high-tech agriculture. We are rich in possibilities.
The key is to chase our own dream, not one developed by someone else for someplace else.
Environment
As we grow and prosper, we must be ever cautious to conserve and protect the natural beauty and environmental purity that makes Hawai'i the envy of the world. This means maintaining strict, canny and sensible environmental laws that may appear to be a burden to some at first glance but actually serve to protect and enhance all that makes living here worthwhile in the first place.
We must recognize that the pave-and-build style of development that once seemed to make sense no longer does. We need growth that is, to use today's buzzword, "smart" in that it protects open space, minimizes the need for the private automobile and enhances options to live, work and play all in the same environment.
Social network
A prosperous, environmentally healthy community means little if the soul of the people is sick. That means thinking about, and helping, those who are the least among us.
It is a shame and a tragedy that so many of our fellow citizens are homeless or close to it. Dealing with homelessness is a community burden all must share. We need to develop transitional housing options for all who want it, drop in shelters for those in need of temporary respite and a full range of social programs to turn the dysfunctional into functional, participating citizens.
We must realize that wholehearted support for drug treatment programs, halfway houses and social service agencies not only serve those in need; it serves all of us by making our entire community stronger.
III
For too long, Hawai'i has tended to let others make decisions for it. In 2005, let us resolve we will take the destiny of our island home in our own hands and shape it the way we want.
