Gov. Linda Lingle speaks with Mililani High School student reporters during her visit to the campus earlier in the week. (Photo courtesy of The Governor's Office)

MEDIA RELEASE
Gov. Linda Lingle will propose a restructuring of the Department of Education during the next legislative session, in an effort to provide more direct accountability for the public.

“The current governance structure for education in our state is not an effective one,” Lingle said. “The best approach we can take is to create education in our state as a cabinet department under the governor.

“It wouldn’t affect me, obviously I’m approaching my last year in office, but I feel my experience over these seven years is valid and has led me to the same conclusion that others have reached many years ago,” Lingle said, referring to a study by then-Lt. Gov. Ben Cayetano when he led a Task Force on Educational Governance in 1992.

One of the recommendations of that task force was to consider making the Department of Education a cabinet agency with the superintendent appointed by and accountable to the elected governor.

The governor would be the single public official the community could hold accountable for the performance of schools and the progress of students.

“What you have now is a system where no one can be held accountable completely because of the way it is structured,” Lingle said.

The governor made the comments as parents and others in the community expressed concern over the loss of instructional days as a result of teacher furloughs to help close the budget shortfall.

The events surrounding the decision to select instructional days for the teacher furloughs, rather than non-instructional days, and the resulting loss of classroom time for students, highlight the major flaw in Hawaii’s existing educational governance structure.

Currently, responsibility for the educational system is parceled out among an elected board, a superintendent appointed by the board, the governor who has no direct oversight of the educational system, and the legislature. No single individual has ultimate authority or accountability to the public.

“None of my departments would have operated like this. They wouldn’t have picked the days that were the most difficult for the children and the parents,” Lingle said. “We [in my Administration] made a decision that we had to have a certain level of savings but how you got that savings, we felt, leave it to the educators who are supposed to have as a priority children’s education. I can tell you had it been one of my directors under my oversight, they would not have made this selection because we had a priority in my departments which was No. 1, how do you minimize impact on public services? and No. 2, how do you take into consideration the employees.”

During the next legislative session, Lingle said she will ask the legislature to place on the ballot a constitutional amendment to put the Department of Education under the governor’s responsibility.