Ige nearly incoherent in defense of meddling

So much for transparency. The windows are shut, the blinds are drawn and there are only fumbled denials when anyone knocks and ask questions.

In 2010 voters decided to cede the power to elect members of the Board of Education and let the governor pick the team. That way, the success of the public school system would fall squarely on the governor. That sounded good in the aftermath of Furlough Fridays, when it seemed nobody was taking the lead or the blame.

But here’s the reality of that change we made: Having the governor take control does not make the BOE less politicized. In fact, if the governor and his wife don’t like the superintendent, they get to dump her regardless of excellent performance reviews.

Clearly, something is going down at the BOE, and David and Dawn Ige are in the thick of it, though all we get is ham-handed obfuscation and frustrating denials.

Last week Hawaii News Now asked Ige whether he was the one who decided Superintendent Kathryn Matayoshi would be out at the end of her contract and whether, as she said, he told Matayoshi this. This is significant because the school board, not the governor, hires or fires the superintendent.

Ige’s on-camera answer, transcribed here word for word, was stunningly awkward as he desperately tried to assemble a stream of words that would not qualify as a fib.

“You know, I, um, I basically, uh, the the the question was about um whether I thought that, um, that the board should, uh, seek, uh, open process and seek a new superintendent and I, I, I said that I would, uh, support the board’s decision.”

Um, wow.

Why is it so hard for the governor to be straight up and admit he’s taking charge of the schools? Hold a press conference and explain why he thinks Matayoshi has to go and why he told the board they had to act. Did she do something wrong, or is there something personal the Iges have against Matayoshi? Dawn Ige is a former vice principal and clearly has ideas about how schools should be run. Maybe it’s simply the fact Matayoshi isn’t part of the governor’s Pearl City High School clique. When Ige called an educational summit earlier this year and didn’t invite Matayoshi, that was beyond an oversight. That was an overt — albeit passive-aggressive — insult, the kind of exclusionary tactic you employ when you’re 16.

And speaking of the governor’s Pearl City High School buddies — all of a sudden, BOE Chairman Lance Mizumoto, who was recruited by Dawn Ige for the school board, leaves his high-paying job at Central Pacific Bank and nobody says why? That leads to rampant speculation and the potential for more awkward denials down the road.

Or maybe all of Ige’s fumbling with the schools is meant to divert attention from the failed promise to get 1,000 classrooms air-conditioned by the end of 2016. That wasn’t Matayoshi’s failed promise. That falls squarely on the governor.

Reach Lee Cataluna at 529-4315 or lcataluna@staradvertiser.com.