“Laura Brown Image”
Democrats who say they are not convinced that local school boards would lead to better student performance should make better use of their Majority Research Office in the Capitol.
They obviously have not read any of the multitudinous research that exists on the subject and instead rely on the frantic attempt of the Department of Education to salvage over $43 million dollars for central administration that would be rendered obsolete by local school boards.
All of the sudden focus on “student achievement” is merely a smoke screen to disguise the real concern of the Democratic Legislature and DOE hierarchy, namely money and power. If “putting students first” is really the issue, the DOE has the power right now to implement a K-12 curriculum in this state without a legislative posturing.
Local school boards are about independent citizen monitoring of a DOE bureaucracy that has become the equivalent of Salvinia Molesta as it consumes more than half of the general fund and will stop at nothing to keep growing.
Call or fax your representatives and let them know that we are ready, once and for all, to redirect education dollars to students, not adult jobs.
”’Laura Brown is the education reporter and researcher for HawaiiReporter.com and the education policy analyst for the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii. She can be reached via email at”’ mailto:laurabrown@hawaii.rr.com