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It is now official: Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie has sole authority to appoint members of the Board of Education. And the state’s governors from now on will bear ultimate responsibility for what happens in Hawaii’s schools.

“As governor, I am accountable for what takes place in our public schools,” Abercrombie said during a ceremonial signing of Monday afternoon at Washington Place. “This paves the way, I hope, for a new era in public education. The object of this is to restore confidence in the public school system. That’s what our goal is, that’s what we’re aiming at and that’s what we’re going to succeed in.”

But still unresolved is whether the student member on the board will have voting rights. Yet almost immediately, candidates for the appointed board made their intentions known.

The bill, which was fast-tracked through the Legislature this session, prescribes a 10-member board (including one nonvoting student member) and outlines member terms and qualifications. Hawaii voters already expressed their wishes for an appointed board to replace the current elected one when they passed a constitutional amendment to that effect last November.

Former Gov. Linda Lingle last year vetoed a bill that would have prescribed the selection process for an appointed board, because she preferred abolishing the board altogether and giving the governor authority to appoint the superintendent.

Abercrombie announced that he already has around 100 applicants for positions on the new appointed board, and he will announce his nominees all at one time within the next two weeks. He encouraged anyone who is interested in serving to submit an application at .

A few at the ceremony said they have applied, including current elected Board of Education member Maralyn Kurshals, who represents the Leeward district, and former Oahu At-Large candidate Kathy Bryant-Hunter. Bryant-Hunter and fellow former candidate Melanie Bailey both advocated for an appointed Board of Education during last year’s election. Bailey has also put her name in the proverbial hat for the new board, Bryant-Hunter said.

“I have to credit (House Education Chairman) Roy Takumi for the fact that I applied,” Bryant-Hunter said. “He said in one of the meetings about this bill that anyone who is passionate about education issues had better put forward names of people who will represent those interests. He said basically, ‘if you don’t get the Board of Education you like, it’s your fault for not putting names out there or applying yourself.'”

The governor surprised some in the small audience when he claimed that the transition to a new appointed board is not a criticism of the elected board.

“The movement toward an appointed Board of Education is not a comment on the character of individual Board of Education members or the work output that has come from the elected Board of Education over the years,” he said. “Quite the contrary: It’s an expression of the attempt to modernize our capacity to respond to what is necessary for 21st-Century education.”

Lingering Question: Voting Rights For Student Member

During the ceremony inside Washington Place, students outside on the sidewalk waved signs advocating for the passage of , which seeks to grant voting rights to the board’s student member. The proposal was initially part of SB8, but was taken out so legislators could speed the bill through and handle the perhaps more controversial issue of student voting rights separately.

Current board member Kurshals said she was heading out to join the sign-waving effort.

“They need a voice, because they are the consumers of education,” she said, adding that she also hopes Abercrombie appoints some people who have served on the board in the past, so they can share the same institutional memory he applauded in the Legislature.

Abercrombie would not tell reporters whether he plans to sign HB338 bill if it is passed.

“Right now there will be student input on the board, and we’re just glad we’ve gotten this far,” he said.

‘Extraordinary Efforts’

The governor credited SB8’s quick movement through the Legislature to the two education chairs, who originally stood at two different ends of the spectrum when it came to how the appointment process should work.

“It simply could not have been done without the extraordinary efforts of synthesis of policy and practice and legislative mastery of Jill Tokuda and Roy Takumi,” Abercrombie said. “I cannot say enough about both of them in terms of their capacity not only to lead their respective houses in the legislature on the importance of moving this bill quickly to a successful conclusion, but for their capacity as veteran legislators. If there’s an argument against term limits it’s here in these two folks.”

“This is a serious reflection of what was the will of the people last November, and I acknowledge them for that,” he added.