There appears to be a lot of numbers used in speeches and research about public school education.
How many students are in public schools? How much money is spent? Does the budget include University of Hawaii students or dollars? In state statistics there are 142,000 students but in Ouchi’s report there are 182,000 students.
I appreciate the information. It seems that the system has been investing enough money to provide results that are better than what is being achieved, however, there are “structural” problems with the present system
It seems odd that Patricia Hamamoto would be saying that decentralization is good but not 7 school boards. I think if she can come up with a plan and programs to greatly improve education with out the school boards, why wait for a vote? Can she and the governor not agree on an approach and begin the process of straightening out the public school structure?
I am an old guy but it seems that the PTA would be a way for the schools to put together a plan, budget, and programs and then implement and improve the quality of the schools. The PTA would be very close to the needs and requirements and would be close to the results actually achieved. We should allow the schools to plan goals and monitor their own programs to see how to continually improve the school results. It would appear that the mechanism to better schools is already in place if the authority and funding can be placed on the individual PTA’s.
If the PTA’s can return authority of the class room back to the teacher, I think the results can be better. The tools required would be security and authority to get rid of students who will not behave. The Principal and PTA will require the ability to replace teachers who do not achieve the planned goals. My suggestion is to have each teacher plan and budget for stated goals which would be negotiated with the dept head and principal. The final plan would be submitted to the DOE who would submit for funding to the Governor. The dollars would flow back to the school and the plans and programs would be implemented to the extent that funding has occurred (lower priorities would be dropped from the list of goals).
The planning and budgeting process would be continuous and the goals elevated as the environment improves.
The foregoing assumes that our educators and elected officials are committed to better results. That is what we are hearing so why not move forward?
Aloha.
”’Leroy Y Uyehara can be reached at:”’ mailto:sunisles@hula.net
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