FACT CHECK — Schatz: I Led Key Education Reforms
Democratic candidate for Lt. Governor Brian Schatz has been airing a 30-second television spot that states, among other things, “In 2004, Schatz led the fight to fix and repair Hawaii’s public schools.”
The ad is paid for by Friends of Brian Schatz and has provoked skeptical remarks from at least one local blogger.
Schatz’s outlines his four terms as a representative in the Hawaii Legislature and notes that he was instrumental in the legislature’s tripling of the school maintenance and repair budget for the Hawaii Department of Education in 2004.
Local blogger Robert Arakaki was one of the first to . He went as far to say that Schatz merely “talks education” while his Lt. Gov. opponent Norman Sakamoto “walks education.”
But at least three legislators who were in office in 2004 have spoken out to affirm that Schatz, as House majority whip, did in fact take significant steps to lead the House in making major changes to the education system, including:
- Handing over to the Hawaii Department of Education the authority to execute school repairs without relying on another department to accomplish them.
- Increasing funding for maintenance of repairs in the education department.
Although he said politics is always team effort, “Brian can say he led a charge as part of the leadership team,” said Rep. Roy Takumi, who became chair of the Hawaii State House of Representatives education committee in 2003 and was a driving force behind . “I think he can make that claim,” he said.
Rep. Scott Saiki, who was the House Majority Leader in 2004, said the Democratic party identified education department repairs and maintenance issue as one of its top priorities during that legislative session. Schatz played “a critical role in formulating the reform legislation and explaining it to colleagues and the public,” he said.
According to an e-mail from Chuck Freedman, Schatz’s campaign chairman, former schools superintendent Patricia Hamamoto also identified Schatz as an active leader in solving the school maintenance problem and using his skills to improve education.
“Brian Schatz was a key leader in both identifying this issue, and in moving forward with the solutions,” said Rep. Dwight Takamine, who was chair of the House Finance Committee in 2004. “We gave the DOE the authority to control its own repair and maintenance, and we appropriated almost three times as much money to deal with the backlog. As Chair of the House Finance at the time, I know that Brian’s leadership helped to make this happen.”
Our conclusion? The education reform claim in Schatz’s ad is true.
