Teachers didn’t get enough information

Hawaii State Teachers Association President Wil Okabe says, "We need to contact our members to get a better understanding of what they want" ("Governor stands firm on school reforms," Star-Advertiser, Jan. 21).

Are you kidding me? The state and the union know exactly what we teachers want. We want a contract that is fair, supportive and complete. We want to know the details of the new performance-based teacher evaluation system before we agree to it. We want to know if the teacher that teaches sixth-grade math is going to be evaluated on the language arts performance of her homeroom student.

If teacher performance is based on student performance, how are they evaluating student performance? By Hawaii State Assessment scores? By teacher-generated scores?

What about special education students, or disadvantaged students, or those who speak English as a second language? Will their teachers be evaluated based on their performance?

Who knows? No one does, and that’s the point. Until these questions are answered, there’s no deal.

Gail Van De Verg
Kailua

All cars should have fire extinguishers

Why aren’t all vehicles required to carry a working fire extinguisher ("HPD officer died while aiding others," Star-Advertiser, Jan. 23). Boats are required to; why not cars? It could be easily enforced as part of the yearly safety check.

After all, we’re driving around in vehicles with internal combustion engines, all kinds of electronics and gallons of gasoline. Doesn’t it makes sense to have a fire extinguisher? I’ve got one, and after this latest incident, I’m going to get a bigger one.

If every single car on the freeway that night had a fire extinguisher, that officer may still be alive today.

James Ward
Ewa Beach

Kudos for article on adoption advocates

Thank you for the article featuring Kin Borja, president of Aloha Life Advocates, and his personal convictions regarding human life advocacy ("President of Aloha Life Advocates adopted baby to stop an abortion," Star-Advertiser, Jan. 21).

We appreciate your giving him the opportunity to tell his story. It is our hope that through reading stories like these, people will open their hearts and minds to the choice of adoption.

We also appreciate the accurate and fair coverage of Aloha Life Advocates and March For Life Hawaii. We believe Pat Gee’s article correctly reflects our approach of encouraging others to choose life while providing the education and resource referrals needed to do so.

Karen DiCostanzo
Aloha Life Advocates

Legislature caused depletion of fund

The Star-Advertiser has reported and opined on the unemployment insurance cost soon to be placed upon fragile local businesses.

The newspaper failed to lay appropriate blame for the diminishment of that fund. Yes, we have had tough economic circumstances, but our fund was flush and our unemployment rates have been mercifully low compared to the mainland.

However, a few years back our Legislature decided to give higher benefits when unemployment claims are made and for longer periods of time (70 percent for 30 weeks), depleting our fund more rapidly than was expected. This was the tradeoff the Legislature and unions made to allow the rate decrease.

With benefit amounts so generous and lengthy, there is no incentive to go back to work. It is meant to be a relief fund, not a permanent handout.

I would hope that our Legislature could return to this issue and also return the benefits to their former numbers and our fund will recover more rapidly.

William Comerford
Honolulu

Don’t let Romney name next Supreme

Two years ago, our U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in the "Citizens United" case that corporations could contribute and spend unlimited amounts of money on political campaigns as a matter of free speech.

If elected, Mitt Romney, under the thumb of the tea party wing of the Republican Party, would very likely have the opportunity to nominate at least one more very right-wing Supreme Court justice, and these sorts of ideologically driven, right-wing rulings could come from the Supreme Court for decades.

We could get more "corporations are people"-type rulings, or rational, reasonable rulings if a re-elected President Barack Obama gets just one more appointment during his second term. That’s what’s at stake.

Ed Reiman
Honolulu

‘Occupy’ folks get special treatment?

City officials cleared out all those people in tents on King Street at Pawaa Park and at Stadium Park. They also just cleared out the homeless on Iwilei Road.

This is due to the law being passed recently about having tents and personal belongings on public property.

When will they clear out those "Occupy" people at the corner of Thomas Square on Beretania Street? They have tents, tables, desks, bookshelves, plants, all kinds of personal belongings on city sidewalks, which is such an eyesore.

Why didn’t they get the same treatment and removal notices placed on their tents? Are they exempt from this? Other states made "Occupy" follow a "no-tents" rule. Why not Hawaii? The state should remove them.

If not, maybe the homeless should place "Occupy Hawaii" signs on their tents so they can stay on public sidewalks, too.

Keep Hawaii beautiful!

Kekoa McGuire
Honolulu