Laura Brown Image It is “a decrepit mess almost totally impervious to reform, paralyzed by bureaucratic and political gridlock,” reports WestEd, a federally funded education laboratory that recently issued a study on the Los Angeles public education system. While the study is not on Hawaii and doesn’t even mention our state, it describes problems in Hawaii’s local education system perfectly: “The governance system is characterized by a set of structures and a culture that are [both] highly resistant to change, leadership constraints that impede the progress of the superintendent, a school board operating in a politically charged environment, limited school autonomy, and unclear accountability at all levels. It is no wonder that the results of past education reforms have been limited.” To be fair, the report adds that resistance to change may also be the result of “reform fatigue” — administrative burnout from an endless barrage of political education reform initiatives since the early 1980s. Los Angeles Unified School District’s request for recommendations on optimal governance and structure resulted in one clear recommendation that Hawaii can learn from: encourage the growth of charter schools. Free from onerous rules and regulations, charter schools offer hope for accountability and student performance, the report says. The Los Angeles Alliance for Student Achievement agreed to act as an incubator for its district’s charter schools, outlining learning goals and accountability, ensuring professional development to access best practices and making accessible data system and timely, meaningful reports on school performance. The Alliance also worked on community outreach, as an advocate for students, as a policy development group that provided continual research and evaluation. Meanwhile, the district must act to limit interference with charter school policy, remove budgetary red tape, provide access to services and monitor school progress, the study says. Specifically, budgets must be decentralized and autonomy increased by allowing dollars to follow individual students. The district’s role would shift to that of service provider for schools. Finally, the superintendent and school board must provide leadership. These are good lessons for Hawaii lawmakers, bureaucrats and educators and show it is easier to make way for charter schools’ success by getting out of the way, rather than paralyzing what has already been proven to work with the right funding and attitude. ”For the full report, go to:” https://www.wested.org/cs/wew/view/rs/685 ”Laura Brown is the education writer and researcher for HawaiiReporter.com. She can be reached via email at” mailto:LauraBrown@Hawaii.rr.com

Hawaii State Republican Senators unveiled their Senate caucus package earlier this week, in preparation for the opening of the Twenty Second Legislature, which begins today and runs through May.

House Republicans and Senate Republicans are aligned on many of the proposals, which includes tax breaks on food for the poor, medical services, Medicare and Medicaid, decentralizing the educational system and tougher penalties for corrupt politicians.

Freshman Representative Lynn Finnegan says she and the Republican Caucus will be pushing this legislative session for a food tax credit for the poor.

The Democrat controlled legislature and Governor Benjamin Cayetano repealed this tax credit in 1998. Republicans also will be pushing to remove the General Excise Tax from medical services, Medicare and Medicaid.

Finnegan and other republicans say Hawaii is the only state in the nation that taxes medical care, Medicare and Medicaid benefits for the elderly, and is one of the few states that taxes food.

Here are their specific proposals outlined in a Monday press conference.

”TAX RELIEF MEASURES”

”1. GET TAX EXEMPTION ON GROCERIES AND MEDICAL SERVICES”

*Only applies to unprepared groceries.
*Does not apply to food purchased in restaurants.
*Applies to meals prepared for home distribution for disabled or handicapped persons 60 years or older who are physically or mentally unable to adequately prepare their own food.
*Cost savings estimate is $182 back in the taxpayers’ pockets: $82 million from medical services, and $100 million in food.

”2. GET EXEMPTION FOR EMPLOYEE LEASING”

*Provides a GET exemption for amount representing employee wages and benefits paid to an employee leasing company.
*Eliminates the duplicative taxing of employee benefits paid by employee leasing companies.
*Fiscal impact is approximately $345,000.

”3. ZERO-BASED BUDGETING”

*To provide accurate, truthful budgeting for the state of Hawaii.

”4. GET REDUCTION”

*Annually reduces the GET by a 0.5 percent across the board.
*Fiscal impact of this measure would be $200 million back in the taxpayers’ pockets.

”5. ELIMINATION OF MOST SPECIAL FUNDS”

*Eliminates most special funds and returns the money to the general funds.
*Does not include federally-mandated special funds and the Hawaii Hurricane Relief Fund.
*Estimated amount transferred to general fund is $3 billion dollars.

”EDUCATION MEASURES”

”1. DECENTRALIZATION OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM”

*Restructures the DOE and BOE into elected and autonomous school boards with seven members.
*The seven members are: five elected members, two appointed by the governor one of whom will have administrative experience and the other shall have fiscal experience.
*This bill includes a state Constitutional amendment.

”2. CHARTER SCHOOLS”

*Doubles the number of authorized new century charter schools.
*Requires the DOE and BOE to keep charter school budget requests and regular public school budget requests separate when reporting to the legislature and auditor.
*Requires a budget report from the auditor’s office within 30 days of the release of the second round of charter school funds.
*Authorizes equal benefits: tenure, probationary status, DOE seniority, accrued retirement for all conversion charter schools.

”3. TEACHER RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION”

*Creates a partnership with U.H. and other Hawaii universities.
*Provides tuition assistance for teaching and/or administrative degrees.
*Provides teacher scholarships/waivers, vouchers for teachers.

”ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT”

”1. MARITIME INDUSTRY DEVELOPMENT”

*Allows private contractors to develop new harbor resources without infringing on interest of existing lessees.

”2. SMALL AIRPORTS”

*Allows the state to sell or lease small airports.

”3. DEREGULATION OF GROUND AND MARITIME TRANSPORTATION”

*Eliminates regulation by the Public Utilities Commission of ground and maritime industries.

”4. LAND USE COMMISSION”

*Eliminates the Land Use Commission.
*Includes proviso for civil servants to retain their jobs.
*Transfers state Land Use Commission records to county land use commissions.

”5. WATER USE COMMISSION”

*Eliminates the Commission on Resource Management (Water Commission)
*Transfers authority to the various county water commissions.
*This bill includes a Constitutional amendment.
*Transfers Water Use Commission records to the county water use commissions.
*Includes proviso for civil servants to retain their jobs.

”6. DEREGULATION OF THE ELECTRIC AND GAS INDUSTRIES”

*Removes the electric and gas companies from Public Utility Commission oversight.
*Promotes energy diversity.
*Creates a new Commission to be known as the Energy Commission.
*Establishes enterprise zones.

”7. PROFESSION LICENSING RECIPROCITY”

*Institutes reciprocity for certain categories of regulated professions.
*License holders in other states can obtain a Hawaii license without additional schooling, exams, or other requirements.

”OTHER MEASURES”

”1. TORT LIABILITY REFORM; JOINT AND SEVERAL LIABILITY/PUNITIVE DAMAGES”

*Extends government’s immunity from joint and several liability to all defendants.

*Caps punitive damages at $375,000.

”2. LAWSUIT ABUSE”

*Eliminates uninsured and chemically impaired motorists’ right to sue for non-economic damages.

”3. MEDICAL MALPRACTICE REFORM”

*Provides additional protections for medical professionals, based on California model.

”4. TRAFFIC FINES”

*Legislates that 50 percent of non-adjudicated traffic fines go to county general funds.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 13 (UPI) — The Pentagon plans to ask Congress to loosen environmental laws governing military training bases on the grounds they are interfering with military readiness, it was reported Monday.

While the military is obligated to adhere to endangered species and habitat regulations, the Washington Post said the Pentagon believes that the laws also restrict the ability of troops to carry out important training exercises.

“Protecting natural resources is not incompatible with protecting access to the land, air and sea space necessary for that realistic combat training,” said Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Raymond DuBois. “The military readiness issue here sometimes gets lost.”

Military bases that cover vast coastal and desert areas have in recent years become the last open space available to many species as urban expansion marches on in surrounding areas, particularly in the Southwest where installations founded during the World War II era have been gradually surrounded by growing cities.

The Honolulu Star-Bulletin reported last week that the Marine Corps was exploring the purchase or lease of lands on the sparsely populated Hawaiian island of Molokai for use in amphibious exercises involving updated landing vehicles and the VA-22 Osprey troop transport aircraft.

Military bases are governed by the 1973 Endangered Species Act and by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which protects migrating birds that use bases for stopovers.

Conservationists last autumn were able to help convince the House of Representatives to reject a provision in the Defense Authorization Act for 2003 that the environmental lobby contended would undermine the Migratory Bird Treaty Act’s jurisdiction over military bases.

According to the Post, the administration changed its tactics and planned to introduce its to the Republican-controlled Congress early in the latest session and then conduct a long-running lobbying effort to convince opponents to change their minds on the grounds of national security.

“While we are arguably one of the best environmental stewards in the government today,” DuBois said, “there is a first and foremost obligation that the secretary of defense has, and that is to properly prepare our troops for combat.”

Environmentalists told the Post they were reluctant to blindly trust the military to continue to protect habitat without the force of law, and others have voiced concerns that exempting the military from conservation laws would open a legal door to increased grazing and development on lands run by other federal agencies.

“This could set the terrible precedent that other federal agencies or private interests could appeal to the Interior Department to secure their own special regulations exempting themselves from the law,” the Endangered Species Coalition said last October when the Migratory Bird Treaty exemptions were being debated.

The Post said that the administration’s further efforts to exempt the military from environmental rules would hinge largely on a recent General Accounting Office report that concluded there was indeed encroachment on military bases by environmental rules, however the Pentagon has been unable to document specifically how that encroachment has harmed training and overall military readiness.

Copyright 2003 by United Press International. All rights reserved.

TOKYO, Jan. 10 (UPI) — Japan announced Friday it will tighten its monitoring of a Tokyo-based bank that caters largely to Korean nationals living in the country, in an apparent bid to crackdown on the flow of funds from Japan to North Korea.

The Hana Credit Union was created last year after five credit unions that catered to Korean nationals and Japanese of Korean descent collapsed.

The Japanese government pumped more than $3.3 billion last year to keep Hana afloat because the bankrupt credit unions collectively lost billions of dollars as a result of illegal remittances to North Korea through them.

The credit unions were: Chogin Kanto Credit Union, Chogin Niigata Credit Union, Chogin Chiba Credit Union, Chogin Tokyo Credit Union and Chogin Nagano Credit Union. Chogin is the Japanese abbreviation for a Korean bank.

Critics say North Korean sympathizers in the country used false names and financed illegal activities through their accounts in the credit unions.

“The government stresses that the Chogin credit unions are domestic financial institutions … but one of the reasons for their collapse was because they provided illegal funding and loans to North Korea,” said Yukio Edano, an influential member of the opposition Democratic Party.

Some Japanese news organizations estimate there are between 56,000 and 90,000 Koreans, mostly from the north of the divided peninsula, actively involved in supporting North Korean leader Kim Jong Il’s regime. Some of them are alleged to have been actively involved in facilitating the abduction of Japanese nationals to North Korea.

In light of heightened tensions between North Korea and Japan, there had been considerable opposition to providing public funding to Hana, and the latest announcement the government will tighten its grip on the credit union is widely expected to fan the flames of opposition still further.

“As we continue to grapple with the abduction issue, (continued government support for Hana Credit Union) is something that cannot be taken for granted, especially from the perspective of the Japanese public,” Edano said.

Given that Japan’s Financial Services Agency rarely makes efforts to increase surveillance of one financial institution in particular, many financial analysts say Hana Credit Union could potentially play a pivotal role in propping up Kim’s government.

Hana’s primary role is to provide financial services to Korean nationals and Korean businesses operating in Japan. Koreans can open bank accounts and obtain loans from Japanese banks, but the Korean credit unions provided them with more favorable terms and had Korean staff.

The Korean population in Japan is relatively small, but is the single largest foreign national group and ethnic minority in the country. Koreans have complained of being discriminated by the Japanese government and the general public.

The government argued it had to treat the Korean credit unions just like other Japanese banks, regardless of what illegal activities it had been involved in. Many innocent depositors, as well as businesses which used the unions as their principal bank, would be badly hurt if the unions collapsed.

Critics say the government measure to protect Korean depositors is a political move to preserve Korean support for Japan. Ties between the two countries have been historically tense. Several Koreans were forcibly brought over to Japan as laborers during World War II when Japan occupied the undivided Korean peninsula.

Many Koreans chose to stay on in Japan after the war, but until Japan resumed diplomatic ties with North Korea in 1997, those originally from the north of the peninsula were caught in the middle. They lived in Japan and often had family and relatives in North Korea, which was out of bounds for Japanese nationals.

The Japanese government’s Friday decision has been criticized.

“Public funds should not be given readily,” Edano said.

The FSA said Friday it will scrutinize Hana Credit Union’s activities by inspecting its transactions on a daily basis, which it said is a condition for Hana to continue receiving government funding. Deposits in bank accounts held under fictitious names will be forwarded to the Resolution and Collection Corp., a government-funded body that buys bad loans from banks and attempts to recoup some of their value.

The government decision came the day North Korea announced it had withdrawn from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Pyongyang has alarmed the international community by announcing it will continue pursuing nuclear weapons.

Copyright 2003 by United Press International. All rights reserved.

Hawaii State Republican Senators unveiled their Senate caucus package earlier this week, in preparation for the opening of the Twenty Second Legislature, which begins today and runs through May. House Republicans and Senate Republicans are aligned on many of the proposals, which includes tax breaks on food for the poor, medical services, Medicare and Medicaid, decentralizing the educational system and tougher penalties for corrupt politicians. Freshman Representative Lynn Finnegan says she and the Republican Caucus will be pushing this legislative session for a food tax credit for the poor. The Democrat controlled legislature and Governor Benjamin Cayetano repealed this tax credit in 1998. Republicans also will be pushing to remove the General Excise Tax from medical services, Medicare and Medicaid. Finnegan and other republicans say Hawaii is the only state in the nation that taxes medical care, Medicare and Medicaid benefits for the elderly, and is one of the few states that taxes food. Here are their specific proposals outlined in a Monday press conference. ‘TAX RELIEF MEASURES’ ‘1. GET TAX EXEMPTION ON GROCERIES AND MEDICAL SERVICES’ *Only applies to unprepared groceries. *Does not apply to food purchased in restaurants. *Applies to meals prepared for home distribution for disabled or handicapped persons 60 years or older who are physically or mentally unable to adequately prepare their own food. *Cost savings estimate is $182 back in the taxpayers’ pockets: $82 million from medical services, and $100 million in food. ‘2. GET EXEMPTION FOR EMPLOYEE LEASING’ *Provides a GET exemption for amount representing employee wages and benefits paid to an employee leasing company. *Eliminates the duplicative taxing of employee benefits paid by employee leasing companies. *Fiscal impact is approximately $345,000. ‘3. ZERO-BASED BUDGETING’ *To provide accurate, truthful budgeting for the state of Hawaii. ‘4. GET REDUCTION’ *Annually reduces the GET by a 0.5 percent across the board. *Fiscal impact of this measure would be $200 million back in the taxpayers’ pockets. ‘5. ELIMINATION OF MOST SPECIAL FUNDS’ *Eliminates most special funds and returns the money to the general funds. *Does not include federally-mandated special funds and the Hawaii Hurricane Relief Fund. *Estimated amount transferred to general fund is $3 billion dollars. ‘EDUCATION MEASURES’ ‘1. DECENTRALIZATION OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM’ *Restructures the DOE and BOE into elected and autonomous school boards with seven members. *The seven members are: five elected members, two appointed by the governor one of whom will have administrative experience and the other shall have fiscal experience. *This bill includes a state Constitutional amendment. ‘2. CHARTER SCHOOLS’ *Doubles the number of authorized new century charter schools. *Requires the DOE and BOE to keep charter school budget requests and regular public school budget requests separate when reporting to the legislature and auditor. *Requires a budget report from the auditor’s office within 30 days of the release of the second round of charter school funds. *Authorizes equal benefits: tenure, probationary status, DOE seniority, accrued retirement for all conversion charter schools. ‘3. TEACHER RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION’ *Creates a partnership with U.H. and other Hawaii universities. *Provides tuition assistance for teaching and/or administrative degrees. *Provides teacher scholarships/waivers, vouchers for teachers. ‘ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT’ ‘1. MARITIME INDUSTRY DEVELOPMENT’ *Allows private contractors to develop new harbor resources without infringing on interest of existing lessees. ‘2. SMALL AIRPORTS’ *Allows the state to sell or lease small airports. ‘3. DEREGULATION OF GROUND AND MARITIME TRANSPORTATION’ *Eliminates regulation by the Public Utilities Commission of ground and maritime industries. ‘4. LAND USE COMMISSION’ *Eliminates the Land Use Commission. *Includes proviso for civil servants to retain their jobs. *Transfers state Land Use Commission records to county land use commissions. ‘5. WATER USE COMMISSION’ *Eliminates the Commission on Resource Management (Water Commission) *Transfers authority to the various county water commissions. *This bill includes a Constitutional amendment. *Transfers Water Use Commission records to the county water use commissions. *Includes proviso for civil servants to retain their jobs. ‘6. DEREGULATION OF THE ELECTRIC AND GAS INDUSTRIES’ *Removes the electric and gas companies from Public Utility Commission oversight. *Promotes energy diversity. *Creates a new Commission to be known as the Energy Commission. *Establishes enterprise zones. ‘7. PROFESSION LICENSING RECIPROCITY’ *Institutes reciprocity for certain categories of regulated professions. *License holders in other states can obtain a Hawaii license without additional schooling, exams, or other requirements. ‘OTHER MEASURES’ ‘1. TORT LIABILITY REFORM; JOINT AND SEVERAL LIABILITY/PUNITIVE DAMAGES’ *Extends government’s immunity from joint and several liability to all defendants. *Caps punitive damages at $375,000. ‘2. LAWSUIT ABUSE’ *Eliminates uninsured and chemically impaired motorists’ right to sue for non-economic damages. ‘3. MEDICAL MALPRACTICE REFORM’ *Provides additional protections for medical professionals, based on California model. ‘4. TRAFFIC FINES’ *Legislates that 50 percent of non-adjudicated traffic fines go to county general funds.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 13 (UPI) — The Pentagon plans to ask Congress to loosen environmental laws governing military training bases on the grounds they are interfering with military readiness, it was reported Monday. While the military is obligated to adhere to endangered species and habitat regulations, the Washington Post said the Pentagon believes that the laws also restrict the ability of troops to carry out important training exercises. “Protecting natural resources is not incompatible with protecting access to the land, air and sea space necessary for that realistic combat training,” said Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Raymond DuBois. “The military readiness issue here sometimes gets lost.” Military bases that cover vast coastal and desert areas have in recent years become the last open space available to many species as urban expansion marches on in surrounding areas, particularly in the Southwest where installations founded during the World War II era have been gradually surrounded by growing cities. The Honolulu Star-Bulletin reported last week that the Marine Corps was exploring the purchase or lease of lands on the sparsely populated Hawaiian island of Molokai for use in amphibious exercises involving updated landing vehicles and the VA-22 Osprey troop transport aircraft. Military bases are governed by the 1973 Endangered Species Act and by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which protects migrating birds that use bases for stopovers. Conservationists last autumn were able to help convince the House of Representatives to reject a provision in the Defense Authorization Act for 2003 that the environmental lobby contended would undermine the Migratory Bird Treaty Act’s jurisdiction over military bases. According to the Post, the administration changed its tactics and planned to introduce its to the Republican-controlled Congress early in the latest session and then conduct a long-running lobbying effort to convince opponents to change their minds on the grounds of national security. “While we are arguably one of the best environmental stewards in the government today,” DuBois said, “there is a first and foremost obligation that the secretary of defense has, and that is to properly prepare our troops for combat.” Environmentalists told the Post they were reluctant to blindly trust the military to continue to protect habitat without the force of law, and others have voiced concerns that exempting the military from conservation laws would open a legal door to increased grazing and development on lands run by other federal agencies. “This could set the terrible precedent that other federal agencies or private interests could appeal to the Interior Department to secure their own special regulations exempting themselves from the law,” the Endangered Species Coalition said last October when the Migratory Bird Treaty exemptions were being debated. The Post said that the administration’s further efforts to exempt the military from environmental rules would hinge largely on a recent General Accounting Office report that concluded there was indeed encroachment on military bases by environmental rules, however the Pentagon has been unable to document specifically how that encroachment has harmed training and overall military readiness. Copyright 2003 by United Press International. All rights reserved.