• A new school system? • Guava Kai strike A new school system? Gov. Linda Lingle’s education reform bandwagon is on its way to statewide meetings. The governor hopes to reinvent how the public school system works in Hawai‘i. The
• A new school system?
• Guava Kai strike
A new school system?
Gov. Linda Lingle’s education reform bandwagon is on its way to statewide meetings. The governor hopes to reinvent how the public school system works in Hawai‘i.
The governor is calling for “bold” moves in reforming how our school administration works, hoping to pave the way for a better education for the tens of thousands of students enrolled in Hawai‘i’s public schools. She rightly says it’s time to stop tossing school reform to members of endless committees and conferences who in the long run seem to end up with little or no change.
The key point of her school reform platform is decentralizing the school system. Hawai‘i is the only state that has a statewide school administration, a carry over from the pre-Statehood Territorial Days when Hawai‘i was run as a protectorate of the United States.
The challenges the 22-member committee working on this project faces are many. Foremost is finding a way that will pull the able administrators of the existing school system into the future, while addressing the concerns of parents and education reformers.
This won’t happen overnight, however it needs to happen if our schools are to provide the education students will need to be successful members of society in the brave new world of the 21st century.
Kaua‘i residents with valid educational reform recommendations are encouraged to speak up when the committee pays Kaua‘i a visit. Your thoughts and views may be just what they need to hear.
Though this movement to reform the schools is aimed at climaxing in time for the 2004 state elections, let’s hope it is much more than a political movement, let’s hope it is one that will provide a better future for our children and our state.
Guava Kai strike
Workers at Kilauea Agronomic’s Guava Kai Plantation are on strike, and being led by representatives of the ILWU union office in Lihu‘e.
With the demise of sugar cane plantations on Kaua‘i and throughout Hawai‘i, ILWU agricultural worker strikes are today rare events.
The workers’ grievances are being addressed by the company, though a resolution isn’t yet at hand.
Though some of the highest agricultural wages in the world are paid to Kaua‘i workers, they still face the realities of high living costs that all of Kaua‘i’s workers face.
A balance between what Kilauea Agronomics, a company whose ownership has been brought back to Hawai‘i over the past few years by former C. Brewer executive Doc Buyers, and the needs of the workers, needs to be struck. The guava operation at Kilauea provides a living for many on the North Shore, and the operation is a fine example of diversified agriculture on Kaua‘i.
