Keep kids in their classrooms on Furlough Fridays!!! In Hawaii, the Department of Education has to cut $468 million over the next two years. The Hawaii State Teachers Association, has agreed (by 81%) to the creation of "Furlough Fridays" rather than accept layoffs. This means 256 schools will reduce the year to 163 days instead of 180 effecting more than 170,800 students and 13,000 public school teachers.  Students need an alternative on teacher furlough days, a place to go where they will be busy, safe and supervised. The solution is simple, any group — including PTSAs — may rent school facilities on furlough Fridays. According to the State Department of Education the costs vary but in general, a classroom would cost about $20 an hour to rent. Alternatively we could utilize our county park facilities similar to the Summer Fun program, at a cost of as little as $5 to $10 per child per furlough day. 

Hawaii is near the top of states on spending per student , yet one of the lowest states in regards to a quality education. We cannot even meet the extremely low standards we have set for ourselves. - Just the Facts:  

• In the Morgan Quitno's Rankings of state education systems in 2006, Hawaii ranked No. 42 overall.
• Hawaii is ranked No. 14 on the amount of money spent on each child.
• The state's No Child Left Behind school report (dated 2008-2009) showed that only 45 percent of all students passed their proficiency objective in math, and only 65 percent were proficient in English.
• The Hawaiian Proficiency Objective is 46 percent for math and 58 percent for reading.

The Problem:

The government option has failed and the burden is being thrown onto students, frontline teachers and families. In addition to bearing job losses while having to pay the already increasing taxes that the Hawaii legislature is pursuing, Hawaii families now have to bear the additional financial burden of providing child care or suitable private instruction for their children on the furlough days. Plus, our teachers are out of work for 17 days.

Also:

• The governance structure of Hawaii's public-education system is unlike that of any other state. This would not be cause for concern if our students were thriving, but they are not.
• Median scores on national exams put Hawaii in the bottom tier of all the states. It's been that way for many years.
• Military and business leaders say the reputation of Hawaii's public schools makes it difficult to attract top personnel to the islands.
• Labor unions say many Department of Education graduates are unable to pass apprentice exams.

• The University of Hawaii says many DOE graduates are not ready to take college-level courses offered at the community colleges. According to placement exams, 79 percent need remediation in math and over half need remediation in reading.

The problem cannot be blamed on funding: Hawaii is 13th-highest among the 50 states in per-pupil operating expenditures, $11,060 versus a national average of $9,666. Hawaii's all-inclusive per-pupil annual expenditure is about $15,500.

It also would be wrong to blame the teachers and principals. The Hawaii Business Roundtable said it well: "The teachers and administrators who serve our children are for the most part dedicated, talented professionals. These men and women are the solution to our educational challenges, not the problem. The problem is our system."

The Solution:

In every other state, individual boards govern an average of six schools, and a statewide body provides oversight. In Hawaii, a single board is responsible for 259 schools and for oversight.

No board can deal effectively with the diverse needs of 259 schools. And being accountable to oneself is the same as being accountable to no one.

Lack of accountability extends throughout the management ranks. No state education system, other than Hawaii, has unionized management. Try to imagine the managers of any other enterprise demanding near-absolute job security and salaries unrelated to performance or outcomes.

Yet another accountability quirk is that the Legislature decides how much money to appropriate and regularly mandates how some of the money must be spent (known as categorical spending and line-item budgeting); and then the governor selectively decides whether to release money that the Legislature has appropriated.

When each of three parties has a hand on the steering wheel, each can blame the others for missing a hoped-for destination. Or, as a former schools superintendent once put it, "When everyone is in control, no one is in control."

Hawaii's DOE has long been the most centralized school system in the nation. Gov. John Burns formed a task force that described this as an unnecessary byproduct of statewide (rather than local) funding:

"Centralized funding for education need not result in centralized or standardized decision-making. A persuasive case can be made for decentralizing decision-making in various areas because ... the most knowledgeable persons to deal with a problem are oftentimes those closest to the children and the community. Such an approach starts with the role of personnel in the individual school or group of schools, rather than starting at the state office."

In his 1962 inaugural address, Burns pledged to decentralize the DOE. But the system remained highly centralized throughout his 12 years in office. Govs. John Waihee, Ben Cayetano and Lingle later tried to decentralize the DOE, but they, too, failed.

In 2004, the Legislature "reinvented" education, but five years later the DOE is still the most centralized, top-down school system in America.

All this is a serious indictment of leadership. Someone ought to be held accountable. - But in Hawaii's unique system, the buck stops nowhere.