Students wouldn’t like these grades

Tough graders, these StudentsFirst folks. The nonprofit, which describes itself as "a movement to transform public education," just issued its report card evaluating state education policies.

Our overall grade: a C-minus (check it out at reportcard.studentsfirst.org), which, incredibly, puts Hawaii in seventh place among states.

That bottom-line grade is an average of myriad scores, from an F in the "use evaluations for personnel decisions" category — a smackdown to the teachers union, perhaps — to an A for "promote governance structures that streamline accountability." Apparently they like the statewide school district and the governor-appointed school board.

Who’s No. 1? It’s Louisiana, where a lot of educational reform has taken place.

Running out of Yellow Brick road

We’re off to see the "Wicked," the wonderful "Wicked" of ours. Or maybe we’re not.

The producers of the "Wizard of Oz" spinoff musical, which ends its Honolulu run with Saturday’s matinee, have given it the old college try. But there are still an estimated few hundred ticket holders who never got the bad news: The last week or so of shows was canceled.

Some of them are customers who paid cash for the tickets and never left contact information. There have been ads and radio broadcasts and such, but they still haven’t shown up for their refund. Amazing that in this day of social media, it’s still possible to be incommunicado.