Testing is killing passion for teaching

As a public school music teacher for 30-plus years, I don’t know how the state Department of Education can use Hawaii State Assessment test scores to evaluate teachers, especially teachers of electives.

Special-education students are mainstreamed into electives and teaching students with a huge range is very challenging.

I had the opportunity to teach at schools with high test scores for two years and I found it easier to teach. I spent 32 years teaching at schools in poverty areas, with English as a second language and lack of parental support, but I was still able to produce quality performances and award winning at competitions and "A" ratings at the festivals.

I predict that teachers will seek transfers to schools with high test scores, when in reality, those teachers are needed more where students are struggling. Teaching is a passion, and all these issues are killing the passion within.

Max Miura
Honolulu

Teachers in position to get better contract

What is the point of raising the salaries, only to take back the increase through furloughs? We have never been in a better position to argue for an honorable contract.

If teachers are being evaluated annually based upon student performance, then special education teachers have a much harder time meeting Adequate Yearly Progress. Six years of a bad contract is no gain for teachers. Why celebrate going back to a 2009 salary scale four years later when inflation has increased since then?

Teachers are being asked to ratify a document that we have not seen (reminds me of the 1,000-page Obamacare bill that was given 24 hours before the vote and now is in court as unconstitutional).

This is the year to restore our country, state and personal finances.

Susan Arias
Waianae

Stop blame game and help schools improve

Rather than allowing myself to be drawn into the cynicism and anger shown by many of the online comments to the story ("DOE falls far short of grant’s targets," Star-Advertiser, Jan. 10), I would rather listen to some students from Kahaluu Elementary School who were recently interviewed about their educational and career aspirations.

These students said they wanted courses about space technology, biotechnology and ethno-archaeology. They wanted a Native Hawaiian hall with nearby gardens, one with a traditional taro patch and one with modern gardens. They wanted their schools to get them ready for a good college.

Hawaii’s teachers and administrators are using their Race to the Top plan, which was designed right here at home, precisely because all of Hawaii’s educational leaders have committed to building a school system that lets all students, from Kahaluu to Kapaa and out to Keaau, gain the skills and knowledge they need to realize their dreams in the rapidly changing 21st century. Our future depends on this transformation. Let’s stop the blame game. Rather, let us jump in and support our schools’ transformation because of our love for our keiki and our state, and for our deep respect for the profession of teaching.

Terrence R. George
Executive vice president and chief operating officer, Harold K.L. Castle Foundation

Facilities repairs will cut unemployment

As a carpenter who has been out of work for way too long, I agree with the state lawmakers who want to invest $500 million on repair and maintenance projects.

Many feel that spending that money will only increase our debt, but we need to spend money in order to make money.

Nearly half of the Hawaii Regional Council of Carpenters members are still unemployed. That’s more than 3,200 of us on the bench, struggling to make ends meet. It’s about time we do something and reduce that unemployment number.

Talbert Ligsay
Waianae

Military cutbacks threaten our security

The recent decision by the Obama administration to reduce the Department of Defense budget by more than $450 billion is cause for concern.

While there may be room for some reductions in the defense budget, why is the administration taking nearly half a trillion dollars from defense over 10 years but virtually nothing from the departments of energy, agriculture, education or the other Cabinet-level departments?

Our defense budget as a percentage of our country’s wealth is well below post-World War II levels. Even Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said that this huge budget reduction will place our country at more risk.

It seems clear that the administration is taking a chance on our security and ability to protect our interests in order to transfer those savings not to paying down our debt but to increase the administration’s domestic spending agenda.

This reduction and transfer of money projects weakness and invites more crises or even war.

Mark Desmarais
Honolulu

Selection of UH coach cloaked in secrecy

The University of Hawaii’s procedure to hire a new head football coach was an embarrassment to the school and an embarrassment to the community.

It appears a powerful person or persons within the university usurped the responsibility of hiring a coach from the athletic director and gave the selection committee of powerful boosters that job.

While the governor must reveal the names of judicial nominees, the list of applicants for head coach and the final five names were kept secret. This secrecy of the names and criteria leaves the process open to mischief, favoritism and plain poor decisions.

We got lucky with the selection of Coach Norm Chow, but the university must clean up the selection process if it is to retain the confidence of the paying fans.

Roy Kamisato
Niu Valley

Media contributing to decline of English

I am beginning to wonder if there is not a conscious effort on the part of the media to dumb down the English language.

Based on what I hear on television and read in the newspaper, the language is being murdered.

No one is arrested any more; they are busted. People are not run over by cars, cars run them over. People do not take things somewhere, they only bring them. "She and I" have been replaced by "me and her." "Whom" seems to have dropped out of the language altogether on TV. Local news broadcasters almost always say "jest" instead of "just." Some broadcasters seem to start every sentence with the word "now." The tense in news broadcasts is never consistent, with things that have happened reported as happens, but later the tense changes to past tense.

Are we supposed to think that the news is more fresh as a result?

Bob Gould
Kaneohe

Feral cats, chickens are out of control

The feral cat and chicken populations are out of control.

At Heeia State Park, the cats and chickens have taken over the area. The animals are being fed regularly by people who feel they are doing a good job, but it only makes matters worse. Nobody cleans up after the animals’ feces and the ocean and streams are right there. Hawaiian Memorial Park is the same way.

Also, there are feral cats in my neighborhood, and when I caught one, it cost me $25 for the Hawaiian Humane Society to come and pick it up. I was told that the city dropped their funding for cats and that it pays only for dogs.

There needs to be a solution before we are overrun by these animals.

Michael Hee
Kaneohe

City’s fee increases becoming a burden

Beware the tax increases. But more so, beware the fee increases.

My vehicle registration fees remained the same for four years, then increased an average of 21 percent for three other years and 41 percent in 2011.

There needs to be a more careful analysis of the fee projections so that there are no sharp increases in taxes and fees — not only vehicle registration fees but also for other city services such as bus fares, golf courses and the zoo, including admission and parking.

The county weight tax increased from 4 cents to 5 cents per pound of vehicle in 2011. Other parts of the registration fee included the state weight tax increase on my vehicle of 133 percent, the state registration fee increase of 80 percent, a county registration fee of $20.50 (same fee as last year), and a beautification fee of $7.

Please let your City Council member and state legislator know of your concerns about this matter.

Dennis Kawamoto
Mililani