FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 2, 2001
Contact: Rep. Galen Fox
Tel.: 586-8520




GOP: EDUCATION IS FOR THE CHILDREN

WE NEED TRUE REFORM


The State House Republican Caucus has released the following statement
:


"The current education system is not working. It hasn't been working for a long time. If we care about our children, we have to change the way we run public education. Today we are pulling out three GOP bills dealing with education reform. The three bills are (1) to allow more flexibility in selecting school principals; (2) to add another chartering authority; and (3) to establish local school boards.

"The measure relating to principals (HB 254) pays them substantially more (at least 20% more) while allowing education leadership to negotiate by mutual agreement limited term contracts with principals that include performance goals. The bill also removes principals from collective bargaining. We feel that such a law is crucial because it has been reported that 67 percent of the current work force will be eligible to retire in the next five years. Competent and able principals are the key to any true educational reform. They provide the imagination and the leadership necessary to make the system work, and so we must, in turn, reward those who perform.

"The basic reason to have charter schools is to increase school choices for both parents and students. Following that, it is imperative that we increase the number of school-launching or authorizing agencies within the state. When the charter school idea was first conceived, the aim was to remove the exclusive franchise to authorize new schools from school boards. In states where the charter school movement is flourishing, there are provisions for all types of chartering authorities including county councils, universities, corporations, and in many cases, a special Charter School Commission. The latter is what we are proposing today.

"There must be at least one additional approval agency beyond the Board of Education. Unless there is, there can be no appeal for applicant groups and no incentives for the board to authorize a set of schools beyond its control. Hawaii's charter laws are rated as fourth weakest in the nation. One of the reasons we received such a low grade is because we are the only state with charter laws to have only one chartering authority.

"If we truly want to provide greater school choices for our keiki, then we must expand to more entities, the authority to establish charter schools."

"Ever since statehood, we have had one centralized school board. Some have argued, despite the results, that having one central Board of Education for the state is a plus. If that is so, why doesn't any other state in the country have a single state-wide board of education?

"We believe that local control of education promotes active public participation and parental involvement. We have seen elsewhere in the nation that local control encourages educational experimentation, flexibility, and adaptation to community needs.

"Large school districts don't seem to work well. Let's look at the numbers. At last count, there were 14,568 school districts in the United States, of which Hawaii has only one. Geographically, ours is the largest school district in America. In terms of students served, it is ninth following big city school districts like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, etc. Their record indicates that bigger is not necessarily better. Los Angeles is seriously considering breaking up its large district into several parts.

"Not too long ago, Hawaii's governor promised to make Hawaii's school system "second to none." We have achieved the distinction of being "second to last." The National Education Association reports that Hawaii has averaged second to last ranked against the other 49 states on the "Verbal" part of the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) over the past 13 years. The NEA has also reported that Hawaii has ranked last in average proficiency in reading for 4th graders in public schools.

"One virtue of Hawaii's single school system is equal financial support for students wherever they live. Our reform preserves statewide equal treatment of standards by maintaining statewide equality of funding.

"We must break up Hawaii's large school district into eight local districts, each with their own local, elected board made up of citizens of the island or community. If we care about out children, we must change education to bring it closer to parents and the communities where families live."


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