I am amazed at the bias, distortion and even deception in David Shapiro’s column on the proposed constitutional amendment for education (“Be honest about schools tax before it goes on ballot,” Star-Advertiser, Volcanic Ash, Sept. 2).

Shapiro does not explain how he believes money would be taken away from the counties by this surcharge on non-residential investment properties.

He decries this as a hasty effort, but this is a well-planned first step in arriving at reliable funding for Hawaii public education, with details to be specified in a bill to be drafted later by the Legislature, where it can be refined, fought about or even eventually defeated.

He talks about deception, but then, as an obvious scare tactic, compares this to the rail project in his final attempt to deceive the public about what’s going on here, which is simply to try to improve funding for public education in Hawaii.

David L. Davis

Ala Moana