ÌìÃÀÊÓƵ

Even before Saturday’s primary election, many activists had already turned their attention to a constitutional amendment on the Nov. 2 general election ballot. If passed, the amendment would replace the elected Hawaii State Board of Education with an appointed one.

Hawaii has had an elected education board since 1966 after voters, fed up with an appointed board they felt was unqualified, unaccountable and out of touch with the community, opted to hold board members accountable with their ballots.

This year, school furloughs and the apparent inability of policy leaders — Gov. Linda Lingle, board members and union negotiators — to resolve the crisis are still fresh in many voters’ memories. Leading the charge for a return to an appointed board are three former Democratic governors who have established grassroots organization for the purpose of garnering “yes” votes on the proposed amendment.

On Saturday, voters narrowed the field in two board of education primaries on Oahu and Maui. In November, at the same time they’re asked about the constitutional amendment, they’ll have to pick six new members of the 13-member board. (A seventh is uncontested.)

The irony is that voter apathy is what makes board of education elections so questionable in the first place, but it’s also what might kill the switch to an appointed board. If voters don’t mark their ballot on the amendment question, their “vote” will count as a vote against the amendment. On Maui, 40 percent of the voters who cast their ballot in the primary, didn’t vote in the board of education election. If that were to occur with the ed board amendment, it would mean a 40 percent “no” vote before a single person cast a negative vote against the amendment. That’s a signal of how big a challenge proponents face.

To provide greater understanding of the issues involved with the proposed amendment, the held a forum on Sept. 14. The ideas raised there provide a good overview on the topic. The speakers were:

• Former Gov. Ben Cayetano.
• Board of Education Chairman Garrett Toguchi.
• University of Hawaii law professor and education researcher .
• Former Hawaii State Teachers Association executive director Joan Husted.

The lively discussion was held in a classroom at UH’s William S. Richardson School of Law and drew an audience of about 50. Although they disagreed about the most effective governance system for the public schools, the four speakers are all old friends from previous working relationships. (In fact, Roth and Husted have been known to refer this reporter to each other for background information.)

• Roth and Husted have had friendly face-offs regarding education issues in numerous fora over the years. They worked together as members of the Tax Revenue Commission in the 1980s and again when Roth was Gov. Linda Lingle‘s policy adviser.
• Toguchi was a researcher for then-Lt. Gov. Cayetano from 1987-92.¹
• Cayetano and Husted negotiated collective bargaining agreements before their respective retirements.

While Cayetano and Roth actively promote the switch to an appointed board, Toguchi and Husted cling tenaciously to the elected board which, they say, is more democratic. And although all agreed that the current system needs improved accountability, the current board chairman and former union executive acknowledged it more reluctantly than Roth and Cayetano. Husted and Toguchi said the governance structure has little to do with the quality of education in Hawaii’s schools. It’s what happens in the classrooms that matters most, they said.

Improving Accountability

Roth said he believes that the elected education board is holding the rest of an otherwise high-quality public school system back.

“When I look at the people in the system I think we should be doing quite well,” he said. “I personally think the personnel is especially strong — the teachers are top-rate, the principals have outstanding abilities, and we have positive student demographics here in Hawaii.”

But test scores and the rate at which high school graduates have to take remedial courses in college indicate the public school system isn’t fulfilling its mission of preparing all Hawaii’s children for college and careers. And circumstances may not improve until the public can hold someone fully accountable for results, he said. The board can’t be blamed for budget cuts when the legislature handles the money, and the legislature can’t be held accountable when the governor restricts or refuses to release funds.

“If I had been here about 40 years ago and we’d been talking about the appointed versus elected board issue, I think I would have liked the idea,” Roth said in his opening remarks. “But it just hasn’t worked. If you’ve got a vehicle that you expect to get good performance from and you’re putting a lot of money into it, in theory it should be running well. But we’ve got a system where everyone’s in control, which means nobody’s in control. If the buck doesn’t stop anywhere, I think we can expect bad results. An appointed BOE won’t be perfect, but at least we will have more accountability through the governor.”

Cayetano said the problem is that the elected board doesn’t have any real power because it doesn’t control the purse. And yet it has managed to micromanage the schools while under the influence of special interests like the teachers union, he said.

The board of education has become the scapegoat for last year’s reviled school furloughs, Toguchi said, explaining his belief that the system’s accountability challenges actually lie with those trying to infringe on the board’s authority:

1. Gov. Linda Lingle, who recommended furloughs in the first place and refused to release emergency funds to the education board in order to prevent them.
2. The legislature, which he said apportions funds to each of the state departments without making education a high priority.

Husted said an appointed board would not solve the problem of a strong-willed legislature that designs programs and policies for the board. She offered a completely different alternative to both the status quo and the proposed amendment.

“I think the issue is reapportionment of the board of education,” she said. “I don’t think we should throw the baby out with the bathwater. I’m a very strong supporter of an elected BOE, and I think we need to improve the way the board is elected rather than get rid of an elected BOE.”

She said that if board seats were apportioned in the way that state senate seats are, voters would be more likely to know who their candidates are.

Both Husted and Toguchi repeatedly pointed out that there is no evidence suggesting an appointed board of education would improve student achievement, which is the primary goal of the education system.

Getting The Most Qualified Members

Amendment proponents also contend that an appointment process could result in better-qualified candidates.

Cayetano said that with every election cycle, fewer voters participate in determining who will serve on the board of education. He cited an increasing percentage of blank ballots cast for the education board seats. The implication was that voters are squandering their opportunity to decide how qualified the education system’s leaders are.

“Thirteen percent of the citizenry elected the board of education members last year,” Roth said. “We can cry that we as a community aren’t doing our homework to vote from an informed position, but that’s the reality of where we are, and the question is what we do about it.”

Cayetano explained that many citizens — like First Hawaiian Bank CEO Don Horner — who are highly regarded for their views on education often would probably never seek public office. But they might be willing to serve if requested, the former governor suggested.

The education board is the only professional board in the state that isn’t appointed, Roth said.

Toguchi said that even though relatively few voters may participate in electing their board members, the ones who do vote are informed enough to at least weed out what he called “the crackpots” among the candidates.

Toguchi responded that giving the governor the power to appoint board members will inevitably politicize the education system. But one of the complicating factors in this debate is that Gov. Lingle vetoed the legislature’s bill proposing a process for appointing board of education members. So voters will have to cast their ballots this November without knowing what appointment mechanism will be used.

“Denying the people their right to choose the board of education candidates is not the right answer,” Toguchi said, adding that education is everybody’s responsibility. Voters need to become better educated about their board of education candidates, he said, in order to make informed decisions at the polls.

Change For Change’s Sake?

Toguchi reiterated his view that an appointed education board would not necessarily improve student achievement and would probably further politicize the school system by concentrating power in the governor’s hands. He also said he was concerned that the Legislature also proposed giving the governor the authority to remove any board member at any time. An appointed board would certainly not increase accountability, he said.

“They will tell you that an appointed board creates a direct line of accountability and that voters can hold the governor responsible,” he said. “But in fact, when voters tried to hold Gov. Lingle responsible for school furloughs, what happened? Those parents and their children were left to sit alone in her office for days and nights, only to get arrested right before their children’s eyes.”

But Roth referred back to the general consensus that the current education system is not delivering positive results. Roth’s and Cayetano’s position was that any change from the school system’s current governance structure is likely to be a good change.

“When you’re trying to make up your mind how to vote, ask yourself if you’re satisfied with the way public education has gone in the last 20 years,” Cayetano told audience members.

“Let’s give it a shot,” Roth said. “It doesn’t make sense to just keep what we’ve got when there seems to be an agreement that it’s not working.”

• The forum was taped by , so if you want to see the whole thing, you still have a chance.