Too many make school decisions

Maui News Editorial
Monday, June 23, 2003

When it comes to making decisions on the needs of a school, it stands to reason that the principal knows best. But that isn't how the state system works. 

The requests for facilities from individual schools are filtered through school districts, through the facilities specialists at the central Department of Education on Oahu, through the Board of Education. That's not the end of the gauntlet. Each year, the DOE ships a statewide list of priorities, balancing the demands from schools across the state, off to the state Legislature where, according to the DOE, legislators do what they want.

Legislators such as East Maui Sen. J. Kalani English say they listen to their constituents and hear a different version of what the schools in their districts need. To his credit, one of the schools in English's district was allocated funding for a much-needed classroom building. But other projects on the Hana High and Elementary list of needs, as well as projects for Lanai High and Elementary and for King Kekaulike High School, were not funded.

What aggravates principals is that the Legislature, while bypassing projects that the DOE agreed were priority, found funding for projects that the DOE had not listed, raising the specter of legislative decisions that don't necessarily take into account the best interests of the schools but do respond to requests from political supporters.

If legislators believe that the DOE isn't really in tune with the individual schools, then they might consider allowing the decision-making to be made closer to home. That's the chief rationale for creating regional school boards to represent schools in a district such as Maui County. 

A Maui District school board, elected by Maui County voters, should be more accessible to those voters and more responsive to the needs of the schools in the district. The Legislature still would be responsible for deciding how much money each of the school districts would get for facilities but it wouldn't have to second-guess what each of the schools needs.

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