Education

December 2008

Government Operated Education: An Oxymoron

by Richard Rowland

Hawaii’s popular view of its system of government education (k-12) has experienced a major shift in the past 20 years. Twenty years ago, the prevailing attitude was that there were some flaws in the DOE organization but none that could not be fixed by injecting more money into it. Today, it is conventional wisdom that the system is broken. It is failing great numbers of our children. And what is being done about it? Not much. But at least the "more money mantra" is dying a slow death. The Governor wants to accomplish some significant change. The legislature disagrees. They want to tinker with the system. Yes. Tinker. Leave it intact with an adjustment here and a tweak there. In effect they are making a generation or more of children tinkertoys. And it gets worse. Talented, dedicated teachers and administrators whose calling is the development of children are being drowned in a mindless, unaccountable, unresponsive bureaucratic system that feeds on itself from within and from the public through the legislature. (more)

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Education

November 2008

Truly Progressive Education Reform

Does Sweden Have an Answer?

by Brandon Bosworth

Curiously, the idea of using government money to help send children to private schools is considered a very right-wing, conservative notion. Granted, in the U.S. it is mostly Republicans who support the concept, with Democrats against. Thus we have the odd situation of liberals opposing a government hand-out that has the potential to mostly benefit the poor and minorities. Not very progressive of them. (more)

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Education

November 2008

Getting Less for More

Feeding the Government Education System in Hawaii

By Kenny Lee, Policy Intern

Governor Linda Lingle’s request for all departments to provide a budgetary reduction plan is causing heated debate among stakeholders in Hawaii’s public education system. As the Board of Education struggles to make $46 million in cuts on a $2.4 billion budget, it is an ideal time to review the money that has been spent and the results of this investment. The Department of Education Operating Budget has grown from $972 million in FY 99‐00 to $2.4 billion in FY 08‐09.1 The current proposed reduction of $46 million represents a mere 1.9% cut of the entire budget. (more)

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Education

June 2008

Making Public Schools Work

Applying a business organization model that allow schools and parent...gasp! control over funding as Hawaii moves towards decentralization

By Laura Brown

Nationwide, a failed public school system has provided the impetus for theoretical proposals and valiant efforts to establish charter schools and vouchers as the chosen methods of reform. These attempts can be likened to salmon swimming upstream, where the stream is the force of unions and status quo administrators protecting their turf, and the salmon, surprisingly, are not the parents of children in failing schools, but economists, businessmen, attorneys, think tanks, and the federal government. (more)

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Education

June 2008

Making Public Schools Work

By Laura Brown

Nationwide, a failed public school system has provided the impetus for theoretical proposals and valiant efforts to establish charter schools and vouchers as the chosen methods of reform. These attempts can be likened to salmon swimming upstream, where the stream is the force of unions and status quo administrators protecting their turf, and the salmon, surprisingly, are not the parents of children in failing schools, but economists, businessmen, attorneys, think tanks, and the federal government. In the current system, principals and teachers are the lemmings, given orders to perform but none of the resources by their superiors and their union bosses. Edmonton Superintendent Angus McBeath explains it this way: "Always remember that Education is, first and foremost, an employment scheme." (more)

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