McPhee had major role in helping libraries

Rod McPhee will long be remembered for his Punahou connection. Probably almost as important, but known to a very few, was his major role in pulling the public library system out of the clutches of an outsourcing contract with a big-name North Carolina firm.

As the library book-buying problems went from worse to unthinkable, the Board of Education wisely set up a blue-ribbon committee to examine the problems and recommend a solution. It was a committee of eight with three librarians and five community-minded citizens. Once the complicated details were gathered, Rod was incisive. "Unpleasant ... costly ... has to be done." We agreed. The BOE acted. The contract was broken.

While this was the work of a committee with more than one "mover and shaker," I think Rod McPhee's reputation and high status in the community was the major reason for total acceptance of the situation. On June 19, 1997, Gov. Cayetano signed Act 262, and selection rights came back to public librarians. If I had my way, this would be a library holiday celebrating McPhee's Feat.

If readers care to read the committee report, it is published in Alternative Library Literature: 1996-1997, available at the library. It was unlikely the American Library Association would move to censure a company that helped finance its annual conferences. If you can't get help from your own professional association, where do you go for help? It was a true "David and Goliath" situation.

Where have all the unredeemables gone?

Reading Suzanne Kosanke's March 4 letter makes me wonder. If $5 million is collected and only $333,000 refunded, does that mean that the intent of the law — i.e., to get trash off the streets — has failed? What happened to those 77,783,333 bottles and cans represented by the 6 cents per container collected ($5 million less $333,000 = $4,667,000; $4,667,000 divided by .06 = 77,783,333 unredeemed cans and bottles).

I would hope those cans and bottles are all stacked up on the porches and yards of those legislators who dreamed up this joke.

Enough, already, with supporting taxes

Is there a tax that your paper doesn't support?

Every time a politician comes forth and asks for a tax increase, your paper supports it wholeheartedly. Increase the GET? Increase vehicle weight tax (which was just increased in what is called the Christmas surprise from the City Council)? Increase the sewer and water tax?

Magnificent ideas, let's do them all! Tax and tax and tax some more.

Your own reports show that Hawai'i is the heaviest-taxed state in the Union. What do we get for this? Our school system is rated as one of the worst in the nation, our roads remind me of a Third World country.

Has anyone thought about reducing the size of government, cutting wasteful spending, holding officials and government employees accountable? I know that these seem to be radical ideas, but they do work in other states.

If The Honolulu Advertiser had its way, my paycheck would be directly paid to the state of Hawai'i and the City and County of Honolulu. I would then receive a stipend based on my needs as determined by the government.

Tree trimming should not be done during day

Daytime tree pruning on Kapi'olani Boulevard must stop immediately. Kapi'olani is a highly congested, major thoroughfare heavily traveled by passenger vehicles and buses. Tree pruners impede the flow of all traffic.

On Friday, Feb. 25, they parked some of their trucks in front of the bus stop at Kapi'olani and Ke'eaumoku, and others were blocking access to the Heald Business Plaza.

The mayor's Complaint Office contends that the pruning needs to be done during the day because of the noise it creates. First of all, the area in question is not a residential area, and second, how noisy is tree pruning?

For two months recently, sandblasting started on the Ala Moana Building every evening around 10. Anyone who witnessed it will attest that sandblasting is noisy.

It's time to put the taxpaying public's interest first and the convenience of vendors last. And schedule such work in a manner that doesn't create more congestion.

Tax increase? First, let's be prudent

I have been hearing about the city raising taxes in several areas as a way to balance the budget. Though I would prefer not to have to pay more taxes, I understand that there is a need. My request to the City Council and the mayor is to be much more responsible with these tax dollars.

I do not understand paying for the Sunset on the Beach program and then claiming that we need to raise taxes. I have heard in the past that the money for Sunset on the Beach comes from a different budget source than the road repair. I look at it as irresponsible regardless of where the money originates or is earmarked.

I believe that Mayor Mufi Hannemann is trying to be responsible with the budget. So I hope that he and the City Council will continue to focus on what is needed and not what is wanted.

DOE has low expectations of both students, teachers

The Honolulu Advertiser errs by inferring 24 public schools publicly branded by the state Department of Education as "failing" — i.e., failing to make adequate progress under provisions of the federal No Child Left Behind law — "cannot handle their educational tasks on their own and need outside help" (editorial, "State school 'takeover' shouldn't be privatized," March 6).

What these schools need, indeed what all Hawai'i public schools desperately need, is inside and long overdue help from the currently dysfunctional DOE.

This help should take the form of a common-core K-12 curriculum and measurable performance standards aligned to curriculum by which to measure both student achievement and teacher effectiveness. This is exactly the help DOE steadfastly refuses to provide on the theory (which The Advertiser erroneously embraces) that "one-size-fits-all 'restructuring' will not work." The refusal of the DOE to establish uniformly high expectations of all students has whipped up a tornado of chaos that is leaving many students behind in the dust.

It is entirely reasonable to conclude that the DOE does not do its job of establishing a rigorous common-core curriculum and specific, objectively measurable performance standards for one clear reason: It has abysmally low expectations of students and teachers. Such low expectations are the mortal enemy of student achievement.

The Honolulu Advertiser also errs in buying into the line of DOE swill that "restructuring, reconstituting or, in layman's terms, a 'takeover' may simply mean that the system brings greater resources to bear." The word "simply" is the culprit. As long as the DOE remains intact, there will be nothing simple about it.

Pouring ever more money into this pestilential bureaucratic rat hole guarantees only one thing: The bureaucratic residents of that well-upholstered rat hole will enjoy an even more comfy, accountability-free existence at the expense of the bright, capable kids whose educational opportunities they are shattering and the teachers they are driving out of state and out of the profession.

Bills would require special treatment

This year marks one of the largest government spending requests ever made by OHA for programs and a new office building to be paid for by all taxpayers, but to benefit persons of one ancestry.

Could it be that the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands are attempting to get it while they can before the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rules that their programs are racially discriminating? The following programs that would be funded by American taxpayers of every race are currently under consideration by the 2005 state Legislature to benefit Americans citizens of a chosen race:

• Senate Bill 911 would clarify lands and revenues for OHA (would triple ceded land payments to OHA).

• House Bill 1416 would require the University of Hawai'i to lower tuition for all UH students of Hawaiian descent at least 50 percent and up to 100 percent.

• Senate Bill 920 would authorize an undetermined amount of state bond funds to construct a new OHA office building and Hawaiian Community Center (to be owned by OHA, not the state).

• Senate Bill 921 SD1 would require the governor to appoint one member of the Land Use Commission from a list of three nominees from OHA.

• House Bill 444 would provide for early childhood education and care tuition subsidies only for Native Hawaiian children.

• House Bill 446 would require the governor to appoint one member to the Board of Land and Natural Resources from three nominees submitted by OHA; House Bill 453 would require the governor to appoint one member to the public advisory board for coastal zone management from a list of three submitted by OHA.

• Senate Bill 917 would authorize OHA to directly appoint one member of the Water Resource Management Commission.

• House Bill 449 would make an appropriation to provide early childhood education and play and learn centers at every Native Hawaiian homestead.

• House Bill 1415 would require all state and county signs to be in English and Hawaiian.

• Senate Bill 1287 would make a $15 million appropriation to OHA in ceded land payments.

• Senate Bill 1532 would appropriate funds to establish a preschool and junior kindergarten program in the Hawaiian language.

These are all obvious attempts by the administration and the Legislature to make all non-Hawaiians second-class citizens and provide entitlements based on race. If the Akaka bill should pass, there will be a tsunami of special entitlements and privileges extended to appease the first-class citizens of the new nation of Hawai'i.

Why have all the American citizens of the state of Hawai'i never been asked to vote whether or not they want an exclusive segregated nation in Hawai'i for one race of people? One has to ask: Can all American-Hawai'i taxpayers afford exclusive rights for American-Native-Hawaiian citizens?