A recent commentary about use of the Smarter Balanced Assessment (SBA) claimed that students perceive the test as "inconsequential" and that they "have little incentive to take them seriously" ("New testing regime at public schools is a recipe for disaster," Star-Advertiser, Island Voices, Oct. 8).
For Hawaii high schoolers, nothing could be further from the truth.
UH now uses the 11th-grade SBA results to enable direct placement into college-level courses. And 11th-grade students who are not ready for college can prepare during 12th grade. Avoiding remedial course work increases students’ likelihood of timely degree completion and reduces the costs of college.
Over 200 colleges and universities have similar programs in California, Washington, Oregon and Nevada. This use of students’ SBA scores for college placement has very real positive consequences for our high school students and helps Hawaii reach our shared "55 by ’25" goal: that 55 percent of adults have a college degree by 2025.
David Lassner
President, University of Hawaii
Net metering yields net gains for HECO
Net-metering programs have helped solar energy use skyrocket across Hawaii, but unfortunately our state Public Utilities Commission has bought into Hawaiian Electric Co.’s unsubstantiated claim that rooftop solar owners don’t pay their fair share to operate the electrical grid.
A new report from the Environment America Research & Policy Center documents independent Value of Solar studies in 11 states that found rooftop solar offered electric utilities net positive benefits, including reduced capital investment costs, avoided energy costs, and reduced environmental compliance costs.
In other words, utilities were underpaying rooftop solar owners, not subsidizing them, while those same customers were creating downward pressure on electric costs for all ratepayers.
Until barriers are removed so consumers can sell their excess power to anyone in a free-market setting, net metering is the only viable alternative. Solar power’s benefits are far greater than its costs, and we should be encouraging more of it, not penalizing it.
Alan Ewell
Tantalus
NextEra subsidiary valued in Tamarac
I write this letter as an executive director of a small Chamber of Commerce in a small city of Broward County, South Florida.
Florida Power & Light has made a significant impact on this nonprofit organization in giving back to the community, enabling us to have successful events, making our city a great place to live, work and play.
FP&L has also made a difference in educating us all on energy usage with the Business Energy Evaluation program, helping small businesses in our area understand how to manage and understand energy demands so they can plan their budgets in the coming years.
NextEra’s responsiveness after a natural disaster, and its community outreach information, together with low-cost energy, will be a tremendous benefit to any location where it is the power service utility supplier.
We appreciate Florida Power & Light’s contribution to the City of Tamarac business community.
Peter Mason
Executive director, the Greater Tamarac Chamber of Commerce
More of tobacco tax should go to center
Michele Carbone, the former director of the University of Hawaii Cancer Center, argues for an increase in the cigarette tax in order to provide adequate funding for the center.
The alternative option, he says, is to close the center ("Options for cancer center are close it or raise cigarette tax," Star-Advertiser, Island Voices, Oct. 15).
There is a third option. Currently only one-eighth of the cigarette tax revenue goes to the cancer fund. Some of the rest is earmarked for other health initiatives, but most of the revenue flows to the state’s general fund. Given the proven connection between smoking and cancer, it is very surprising to me that more of the cigarette tax revenue does not go toward cancer research.
Doubling the cancer fund’s percentage allocation would solve the cancer center’s funding problem — and it would still be only one quarter of the total cigarette tax receipts.
Edward Conklin
Waikiki
Cheap heroin is all we have to show for war
According to Wikipedia, Afghan opium production has increased since the U.S. invasion in 2001.
NATO is allegedly afraid of alienating the locals by trying to eradicate this crop, which brings profits of 17 times more than food crops and requires no special storage and is drought resistant. It is estimated that 10 percent of the population is involved in opium production and transport.
Corruption is alleged to reach all levels of government.
The war in Afghanistan has so far cost American taxpayers $660 billion.
That amount of money could have eliminated poverty and rejuvenated our infrastructure. Now all we have is cheap heroin on our streets.
Jeff Bigler
Wailuku
FROM THE FORUM
Readers of the Star-Advertiser’s online edition can respond to stories posted there. The following are some of those. Instead of names, pseudonyms are generally used online. They have been removed.
"Tsutsui yearns for bigger role" Star-Advertiser, Oct. 13:
>> How is it possible that Kaiser could be named to run Maui’s hospital and the lieutenant governor, who is from Maui, doesn’t know that that decision has been made?
>> Not fully using Lt. Gov. Shan Tsutsui is a complete waste and a very poor decision by Gov. David Ige. His advisers are not doing him any favors by shutting out the LG, and I hope this article will open the governor’s eyes and get things back on track between the two of them.
>> The governor will put together a task force to study the situation.
——
"Religious sign at Marine base is staying put" Star-Advertiser, Oct. 13:
>> Simply remove the word "god" from the sign, and it’d be fine for everyone.
>> The word God offends you?
>> It offends me because it favors one religion over no religion. The United States is not a theocracy.
——
"Shooting shatters tour bus window" Star-Advertiser, Oct. 13:
>> This guy needs to be caught and soon … before a person gets killed by these BBs.
>> When finally apprehended, what will be the consequences? You’ve got to make it significant. With this and the armed robbery of a tourist reported, it doesn’t do very well for our tourist industry. All it takes is for NHK to do a special on crime in Hawaii and broadcast within Japan and English channels. The power of the media can be damaging.
——
"Chief affirms China sea stance" Star-Advertiser, Oct. 14:
>> Let us pray that no war breaks out over these artificial islands. It is amazing the risks countries take that ultimately put the public at risk.
>> The Obama administration has been talking about this matter far too long without doing anything about it. The U.S. should exert its right to freedom of navigation by sending one or two Navy ships right up next to the artificial island, drop anchor and remain there as long as the Chinese are there, and do it now.
——
"PUC reduces credit rate for new solar customers" Star-Advertiser, Oct. 14:
>> How can this possibly be good for anyone other than Hawaiian Electric, PUC Commissioner Randy Iwase and Gov. David Ige?
>> It helps lower rates for everyone who doesn’t have photovoltaic, since instead of buying power from a neighbor’s PV system for the most expensive price (currently about 26 cents) they’ll buy power from them at 15 cents. Honestly, it’s a no-brainer of a decision.
>> It’s time to create a system that lets users easily leave the grid. We need better energy storage.
>> Compared to other technologies, improvements in battery or energy storage has been painfully slow. I can’t wait for the next big thing.
——
"City sweep clears out last of homeless from Kakaako" Star-Advertiser, Oct. 14:
>> When I walk around Waikiki it seems that every block has portions of a bicycle chained to a post and it has been stripped of anything not secured. I bring this up when I look at the picture of the homeless man pushing a grocery cart full of bicycle parts. What use are they? Is there a market for these parts? Maybe he just does it for kicks?
>> Back to the issue of the shopping cart — why is he not arrested for being in possession of stolen property?
>> The reason that the police do not arrest homeless folks for stealing shopping carts is that the owner of the shopping cart must identify it as the property of his or her business and that the cart was stolen by the homeless individual possessing it. Now, if a grocer sees some guy using his cart and asks for it back, the homeless person would have to give it back.
——
"Ethics Commission clears 3 of wrongdoing in votes taken by Council on rail" Star-Advertiser, Oct. 15:
>> "… behind closed doors …" Nuff said.
>> It’s nice to be able to move on. Rail should have been built decades ago.
