David Shapiro: Green’s stamp on schools had better deliver for kids

For a state always proclaiming our keiki come first, we seldom show it when it comes to the quality of our public schools.

We’ve wrestled with school reform since the Legislature passed the Reinventing Education Act of 2004, an alternative to Gov. Linda Lingle’s proposal to break our statewide school system — the only one in the nation — into seven local boards.

Are our “reinvented” schools better off than 20 years ago? It would be hard for an objective person to say “yes.”

Hawaii schools were already underperforming before COVID-19, were among the slowest to reopen during the pandemic despite relatively low infection rates here and have struggled to help students make up lost time, leaving a generation of kids incalculably handicapped.

While keiki lag behind, debate over public education focuses on the desires of adult “stakeholders” who feed off the system — teachers, principals, administrators and politicians.

Teachers have done well in recent years with good contract pay raises, step increases bestowed by the Legislature and differentials for hard-to-fill jobs. Legislators gave them $2,200 pandemic bonuses from federal funds intended to help students recover lost instruction. Still, they hog the spotlight in school discussions with gripes about their pay, bosses and working conditions.

Principals, who should be leading the education debate, keep their heads low and hide behind their union while collecting lofty salaries and avoiding meaningful performance reviews.

Superintendent Keith Hayashi’s reign has been defined in good part by attempts to get bigger salaries for him and his deputies.

Elected officials step into the void and disrupt any sign of progress by playing politics. The 2010 change from an elected to a gubernatorially appointed Board of Education has resulted in generally higher-quality board members but a loss of continuity.

Gov. Neil Abercrombie’s appointed board, led by banker Don Horner, produced a strategic plan based on accountability but was scuttled by Gov. David Ige after pushback from the teachers union and others in the system.

Ige’s board finally got focused under the able leadership of former Principal Catherine Payne and attorney Bruce Voss, and came up with its own strategic plan.

Implementation is in doubt, however, after Gov. Josh Green inexplicably replaced Voss as school board chair with businessman Warren Haruki, who resigned after less than a year of high turnover among board members and staff.

Green replaced Haruki with former state Rep. Roy Takumi, an earnest legislator who was a principal architect of the Reinventing Education Act of 2004.

Takumi is promising results, telling senators at his confirmation hearing, “When you really distill what the board is responsible for, it’s to hold the department accountable in measurable outcomes.”

Takumi’s problem, though, is walking the talk.

He made similar promises in 2004 but never did a deep follow-up on the “reinvention” bill despite clear signs its major provisions — weighted funding to address the greatest needs, more school-level spending control, principal performance contracts and school-community councils — weren’t fully realized.

Green likes grand gestures to show he’s in charge. These difficult-to-fathom moves had better serve the kids, for a change, if he wants to avoid uncomfortable explanations.

Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com.