GOP: HURRAH! BACK TO SCHOOL

Needed Now--Real Reform

The State House Republican Caucus has released the following statement:

It is good news the public school strike has ended. Yet raising teachers' pay, no matter how deserved, doesn't get to the core of the problem. Our public school system is still broken. To fix it requires far more. Our teachers are some of the most competent and caring serving in any school system. They are not the problem.

We need to rethink what our schools can and should be doing. The major reforms that should be undertaken include:

• Decentralization. We need to decentralize our one statewide school district into local school systems for each neighbor island county, for Honolulu, for Windward Oahu, Leeward Oahu, and Central Oahu. Let people live with the school system of their choice. Local control is essential to an effective school system.

• Charter Schools. We need to support true charter schools. There must be school choice for those students whose present school isn't meeting their needs. More school choice means more charter schools. True charter schools are simply independent public schools, designed and operated by teachers, parents, and community members. This arrangement frees these institutions from micro-management and promotes the other goals we seek -- accountability, choice and autonomy.

• Alternative Schools and Schools within Schools. For children with special needs, we must establish small, specialized schools. Hawaii's elementary schools have the third highest number of students per school in the nation, and our comprehensive high schools are the largest in the country by far. This situation can't be beneficial to either Felix children or to others.

• Bureaucratic Reform: Dr. LeMahieu is right to press accountability and standards. We also need a far leaner and more efficient state office supporting the schools.

Educational reform is possible only with the blessing of our teachers. No one knows the plusses and minuses of our present system better than our teachers do. Teachers know that DOE wastes mountains of money and time taking in taxes at the top and running it through a bureaucracy of people with paper who exist to justify their high salaries. The people who count, the children in the schools, their teacher and principal, come last. Teachers know we need to break this bureaucratic system. Teachers need to demand educational reform for the sake of our children. We invite them to join us in working towards true educational reform.

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