KALAPAKI BEACH — Lieutenant Governor Mazie Hirono told the Kaua’i Chamber of Commerce last week that a qualified teacher is the single-most important factor in improving student learning. “We all agree that the single most important factor in a child’s
KALAPAKI BEACH — Lieutenant Governor Mazie Hirono told the Kaua’i Chamber of Commerce last week that a qualified teacher is the single-most important factor in improving student learning.
“We all agree that the single most important factor in a child’s education is a caring, competent teacher,” she said.
Practicing what she preaches, earlier this year Hirono hosted a conference of the Hawai’i Policy Group of the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future (NCTAF), where draft recommendations for ways to improve teacher quality in the state’s public schools were unveiled.
Ways are being sought to improve, train and sustain teachers, she said.
Hirono chairs the policy group as well as the Hawai’i Teacher Standards Board. “The recommendations we’re working on will help us find new ways to recruit teachers, retain the ones we have, ensure competence and give our teachers the support they need to do a very important job,” she said.
The data and recommendations are expected to be released in a report early next year, followed by the mapping out of a strategic plan to determine how best to implement those recommendations.
Another of her initiatives has been to cut down on the reams of state paperwork which can swamp small businesses. Her SWAT (Slice Waste And Tape) project has resulted in the elimination of 61 chapters of Hawai’i Administrative Rules seen as unnecessary or unduly cumbersome.
And she’s not done cutting yet. The state Department of Education is recommending the elimination of 24 chapters of rules already covered under its school code, and the University of Hawai’i is looking to chop 10 of the 23 chapters of its rules. The civil service reform movement could easily eliminate the need for the 27 chapters of state Department of Human Resources Development’s rules.
Attacking the rules isn’t enough, she continued. Getting at the rules-making process is a way to eliminate rules before they hit the books. Her efforts have saved state government thousands of dollars, she estimates.
Streamlining boating rules, simplifying tax forms, improving access to rules via the Internet, eliminating certain forms, and speeding up payment processing are all ways she’s working to make state government more efficient.
Where working with small businesses is concerned, Hirono said the initiatives to expedite permitting processes, and using the Internet for procurement purposes, for example, couldn’t have happened without the support of and input from the small-business community.
“The whole idea is to reduce the burden on business,” but government couldn’t do it, or have done it, without business input, she continued.
Hirono, a former member of the state House of Representatives and the first immigrant of Asian ancestry ever elected to a statewide office in the United States, was born and Japan, and raised by a single mother.
Speaking about the robust state economy, she noted that tax collections are up, visitor arrival numbers are up, and, overall, “We have a lot to be thankful for.” The University of Hawai’i at Manoa is considered among the best in the nation in biomedical research, ocean sciences, astronomy and its medical school. “These are exciting times that we live in,” Hirono continued.
She sees the new century as one of opportunity, with Hawai’i positioned “as a bridge between the east and the west.” Speaking at the Kaua’i Marriott Resort & Beach Club, Hirono encouraged about 300 Chamber members and guests to keep their positive attitudes.
Speaking about the national elections, she called particularly the presidential election’s aftermath “a great lesson in civics,” with many “firsts” in the nation’s history: ?
The first time a presidential election has been this close; ?
The first time a dead person is elected to statewide office (the governor of Missouri died in a plane crash during his re-election campaign, and still beat his challenger in the general election); ?
The first time a seated first lady (Hillary Rodham Clinton) has been elected to a statewide office (a U.S. Senate seat representing the state of New York).
The Lieutenant Governor was obviously moved by the presentations of the Chamber’s business awards, with First Hawaiian Bank and Island Business magazine, to Humanitarian of the Year Dennis Fujimoto of The Garden Island newspaper, and Entrepreneur of the Year Rich Jasper of Anchor Cove Shopping Center.
“Business is not just about the bottom line,” Hirono said after the pair made combined acceptance speeches of around a minute and said they weren’t sure they should even accept the awards.
Both Fujimoto and Jasper, she said, are “very humble about their work.” “I know how much you care, and how much you’re giving back to the community,” Hirono said to Fujimoto.
Leland Kahawai of First Hawaiian Bank’s Lihu’e branch called Fujimoto a “tireless supporter” of families and youth athletics, as well as active participant in DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) and Kaua’i Police Department efforts, as well as the annual Lihu’e Christmas lights parade.
Nominated by Sandi Kato-Klutke of the Aston Kaua’i Beach Villas, Fujimoto received letters of support in the nomination from Mayor Maryanne Kusaka, KPD Chief George Freitas, and TGI New Media Manager Chris Cook.
“I don’t think I deserve the award,” Fujimoto said, obviously uncomfortable behind the podium. He said he just does his job, like everybody else in the room, and that after leaving the island for college, he is back for good, so Kaua’i is “stuck with me, good, bad or otherwise.” He received a plaque and perpetual trophy to mark the honor.
About Jasper, Kahawai said his Anchor Cove Shopping Center was a success even during tough times, and Jasper has been involved not only in the volunteer groups which plan, coordinate and participate in greeting arriving cruise ships, but is president of the Kapa’a Business Association, has business enterprises in Nawiliwili as well as Kapa’a (including the every-weekend Kaua’i Products Fair), and is also a member of Kaua’i Visitors Bureau board of directors.
Jasper also said he wasn’t sure he would accept the award in his name alone, because his success has been his family’s success. “I couldn’t do it without them,” he said of his family, many in the audience.
Phil Fudge nominated his fellow Kapa’a Business Association member, who got letters of support from Kusaka and Sam Pratt, 2001 Chamber chair.
Pratt, who took the podium at meeting’s end, presented gifts of rounds of golf at the Makai Golf Course, and brunch for two at Cafe Hanalei in the Princeville Hotel, to outgoing board chair Matt Takata, of Title Guaranty Escrow Services, Inc. Those gifts were courtesy of the Princeville Corporation.
