Maybe it was hard to find a place to park

With so much at stake in public education, it was disappointing that a state Board of Education candidates forum Monday night at the University of Hawaii drew an audience of only about 40, most of them campaign volunteers and family members of the candidates.

Hawaii’s schools will still be under severe budget constraints this year as they face higher progress goals and a shift to more demanding curriculum and tougher graduation standards. Hard decisions will be required of the BOE.

Furlough Fridays sparked a groundswell of public outrage and activism. It would be a shame if that frustration now failed to translate into more awareness and involvement in the process.

California CJ nominee has Hawaii connection

Tani Cantil-Sakauye’s name is in the hopper for the loftiest post in California’s court system, but her family’s humble Hawaii plantation background lends her story that special American Dream quality.

Cantil-Sakauye, the California chief justice nominee who on Monday earned the nominating judicial panel’s highest rating, is the daughter of a sugar cane and pineapple worker of Filipino and Portuguese ancestry who worked here before moving to Sacramento.

The judge herself in her early years was employed in the harvesting of another cash crop: cash itself. While a law school student, she was a blackjack dealer in Tahoe and Reno – speaking of American dreams.