Education officials ignoring parents

Quality students come from caring, nurturing parents.

Without parents, there would be no students whatsoever.

Yet a recent Star-Advertiser editorial on education never mentions parents ("Schools’ progress heartening," Star-Advertiser, Our View, July 20).

And a self-congratulatory article by Gov. Neil Abercrombie, Board of Education Chairman Don Horner and schools Superintendent Kathryn Matayoshi mentions parents (offhandedly) only once ("A new day is dawning for Hawaii education," Star-Advertiser, Island Voices, July 29).

Parents vote, children don’t. Parents need to vote — by ballot and with their feet — to really get quality education for their children.

It is obvious that reliance on government and other leaders who do not respect the role of parents is a fool’s errand.

Parents need to act without delay because they are the genuine leaders; duty calls.

They are unavoidably accountable.

Richard O. Rowland
Founder and president, Grassroot Institute of Hawaii

Alapai bus depot needs restrooms

I’m sure by now that many people have discovered that there are no public restrooms at the sophisticated and modernized Alapai transit center, which cost nearly $5 million.

It’s a shame that this had to happen so that the vandalized restrooms at the Waipahu transit center could be repaired.

The city’s neglect in not maintaining the Waipahu restrooms displays a great deal of lack of responsibility and disrespect for the public.

It’s very inconvenient for the public to go to the other businesses nearby.

I truly hope this problem will be resolved soon because it’s unfair that people’s health is at stake because of a huge and avoidable oversight.

Alexis M. Liftee
Nuuanu

Rail needed now and in the future

My son experienced his first mass transit ride on Bay Area’s BART when I was pregnant.

He is now 31 years old and it saddens me to think that we may never have our own mass transit system.

I have commuted from the Leeward side to downtown Honolulu for more than 25 years.

Initially, I rode the bus but it was adding an additional hour to what was already a two-hour commute.

I started driving instead but have to leave home at 5:30 a.m. in order to escape the worst of traffic. At 6 a.m., the H-1 freeway is already gridlocked, even with six lanes.

Enough with Band-Aid "solutions" like the carpool, Zip and shoulder lanes, and possible BRT. I will be retired by the time a mass transit system can be operational.

Let’s build a mass transit system for the future: for our children and grandchildren to ride.

Lani Abrigana
Ewa Beach

Broader rail plans must be discussed  

Why are people speaking about rail as if the entire system is to consist of that one leg from East Kapolei to Ala Moana Center? Isn’t the question really about the full network that is being proposed, with legs to the airport, the universities, the other shopping malls, and major population centers?

Where are the maps and the discussion of that future?

When it is built out, the full system will cost far more than the $5.26 billion estimated for that first section. Those billions of dollars could be used to fund a first-class bus system and first-class roads for all of Oahu.

The bus routes could be adjusted periodically to meet changing demands.

If people could buy annual passes at a low cost, and enjoy comfortable buses that arrived frequently and went where they wanted to go, there would be far fewer cars on those roads.

George Kent
Hawaii Kai

Health care reform has boosted health  

The Star-Advertiser recently carried a couple of excellent reality checks to the claims sometimes made about Obamacare.

First was an article reporting that the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office concluded that health care reform would save U.S. taxpayers $84 billion over the next decade.

Second was an article reporting that a study showed states that expanded their Medicaid coverage, as the reform calls for, had significantly improved health in their populations, because more people had access to preventive care instead of only legally required emergency room care (which has previously boosted overall health care costs).

It’s worth examining the facts in this highly charged election year, and, frankly, I don’t trust any political ad on TV or in mailings as representing balanced information.

David Chappell
Kaneohe

Fix Kailua traffic with simple change

Fred Hemmings’ letter congratulating the state Department of Transportation for taking the initiative in relieving the traffic congestionin the downtown corridor by simply re-striping the roadway is a lesson to be learned by the city ("Traffic engineers did well with lanes," Star-Advertiser, Aug. 2). The Kailuatraffic congestion at theKalapawai Market triangle could be solved by merely restoring the traffic configuration to the pre-Kalaheo sewer project era.

Re-stripingthe curved portion of Kailua Road between the Beach Centerto where it meets with the traffic coming from Kalaheo Avenue, and returning it to a two-way road, will result in a non-stop free flow of traffic heading to Kailua town from the Lanikai area. This could be accomplished with little expense and will not take an involved study or impact assessment because this configuration was in existence for 50-plus years before it was changed.

Dick Hagstrom
Lanikai