04-01-2010, 10:32 AM
1. Rather than asking how Faye Hanohano is doing, ask what she is doing. The answer is nothing. All politics being ultimately local, I put Puna's lack of effective representation in the State House at the top of my list.
2. It's time we declare the State Department of Education a failed enterprise and start from scratch. The Governor's suggestion that the Board of Education be appointed instead of elected sounds good, but would only be a stop-gap measure. I like a suggestion that I heard somewhere that all the money being spent on public eductation in Hawaii be used to expand charter schools and/or provide tuition reimbursement towards private education. At first, I thought that suggestion was some looney Libertarianism, but the more I have learned about public education in Hawaii, the more I like the idea.
3. My last issue has to do with economic development. Rather than using the current budget and economic crisis as a springboard to bring in a new and improved economic model, the State seems hell-bent on maintaining the failed economic model of tourism, real estate development, and construction. I am enough of a realist to know that this can't be changed overnight and that tourism is going to be important for a long time to come. I do feel, however, that sustainable specialty agriculture, eco-tourism, renewable energy, and location-oriented scientific research (astronomy, tropical agriculture, geo-thermal, etc.) have not been sufficiently incentivized.
2. It's time we declare the State Department of Education a failed enterprise and start from scratch. The Governor's suggestion that the Board of Education be appointed instead of elected sounds good, but would only be a stop-gap measure. I like a suggestion that I heard somewhere that all the money being spent on public eductation in Hawaii be used to expand charter schools and/or provide tuition reimbursement towards private education. At first, I thought that suggestion was some looney Libertarianism, but the more I have learned about public education in Hawaii, the more I like the idea.
3. My last issue has to do with economic development. Rather than using the current budget and economic crisis as a springboard to bring in a new and improved economic model, the State seems hell-bent on maintaining the failed economic model of tourism, real estate development, and construction. I am enough of a realist to know that this can't be changed overnight and that tourism is going to be important for a long time to come. I do feel, however, that sustainable specialty agriculture, eco-tourism, renewable energy, and location-oriented scientific research (astronomy, tropical agriculture, geo-thermal, etc.) have not been sufficiently incentivized.