A Hawaii Reporter editorial written by Rep. Marilyn Lee, D-Mililani, revealed the source of the current rhetoric being used by the Hawaii State Teachers’ Union and Superintendent of Schools Patricia Hamamoto to support Hawaii’s centralized education system. She states that Tony Wagner, co-director of the Change Leadership Group at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education, held New York City up as a shining example of centralized education that works in his presentation on “Reinventing America’s Schools” to legislators, educators, and concerned members of the community at the State Capitol on Monday, Nov. 17, 2003. Mysteriously, Hawaii Reporter attended that presentation only to find a sign on the door that the meeting was cancelled. Wagner, scheduled to appear at U.H. that same evening, cancelled “due to illness” according to event coordinators.

Whether Wagner met with members of the legislature or not, his dialogue about “reinventing” an education system that is “obsolete” without “adding an extra layer of bureaucracy” with local school boards was lifted by the superintendent and regurgitated at her address to the Legislature last week, while emphasizing the absolute need to retain the current bureaucracy.

Providing anecdotal evidence to support the superintendent, Rep. Lee recounts her recent visit to two New York City schools that have “no library, no gym and no science labs”, much like Hawaii’s schools. However, one NYC school had something Hawaii schools do not-fresh paint. Also, the NYC school boasted a 70 per cent rate of students who go on to higher education, even though the student body was 99 percent minority. They also had formed an alliance with a local business and had initiated a mentoring program. Another NYC school offered college level courses for 16-year-old students. The principal told Rep. Lee that the recent centralization prevented micromanagement of his school because of the “distance” between the school and the DOE. Rep. Lee concludes that perhaps Hawaii should look at dividing large high schools into small schools like New York’s.

Is New York City a Model for Success?


Aside from a discussion of turning Hawaii’s factory-like high schools into schools-within-schools, quadrupling teacher and staff requirements and costs, is Mayor Bloomberg’s takeover of New York City schools working?

Test scores from the 2003 – 2004 tests won’t be available until September 2004 at the earliest, so the verdict on student achievements still out. Ominously, the Deputy Chancellor for curriculum and instruction, Diana Lam, is said to be a proponent of “whole language and fuzzy math”, both of which have led to disastrous test scores in Hawaii’s schools. The most current data does not show any meaningful improvement to date. More details at this URL:

http://www.nyc.gov/html/ops/downloads/pdf/2004_mmr/0104_mmr.pdf

According to sources, when Mayor Bloomberg took over, the NYC school system was rife with political patronage. Upon reorganization, those receiving the patronage struck back using their “pawns who held administrative positions”. In a similar manner, when Hawaii’s Governor Linda Lingle proposed breaking up the centralized DOE in favor of local school boards, the superintendent was propped up at a podium surrounded by what some describe as “the old boy network”.

Comparing New York’s Centralized Governance Structure to Hawaii’s