TEACHERS MAKE GOOD SCHOOLS

Excite youngsters about the possibilities of learning and all the other
problems involved in government education will be solved. The key ingredient
to exciting education is the person standing at the head of the classroom.

A teacher who not only wants to be a teacher but heads into the classroom
each day brimming with enthusiasm is a teacher who will have students
sitting expectantly at his or her desk, looking forward to what the next
hour or hours will bring.

As it is, the Hawaii public school system seems designed to curb any
possible excitement in the classroom by loading teachers with unnecessary
paperwork, failing to provide the resources necessary and now -- if Senate
President Bobby Bunda has his way -- turning schools into some sort of
police state.

It's little wonder that the state Department of Education has 1,600 teacher
vacancies to fill each year and less wonder that students who survive 12
years of attending government schools where teachers are struggling to
support their own families have little or no interest in going into
teaching. And, even if they are interested, the state DOE seems more
interested in making sure the teachers toe whatever bureaucratic line is in
fashion that day. Hawaii certification of teachers has little to do with
subject mastery and concentrates on making sure a prospective teacher is
able to do things in a bureaucratically acceptable way.

Universal education is the foundation upon which the United States was
built. Lawmakers looking for ways to stimulate the state's economy need look
no further than education. Well-educated citizens will create an economy
that not only works but is sustainable.

In his opening-day speech, Bunda proposed drug testing of public school
students. As might be expected, Honolulu Prosecutor Peter Carlisle thought
it was a great idea. Bunda also said school administrators should be given
information about the criminal histories of students. Both ideas smack of
the sort of desperate fascism favored by those who don't want to meet the
major problem head-on.