DOE doesn’t need more bureaucracy

Hawaii Department of Education Superintendent Keith Hayashi has now appointed a third deputy to “thicken bureaucracy at the top” (“Hawaii Department of Education appoints third deputy superintendent,” Star-Advertiser, Sept. 2). Since the new $190,000 salary of each has to come from somewhere, they’ve already found the first $100,000: Konawaena High School on Hawaii island.

Falling a few students short of the projected 950 students, the school has had to return $100,000 to the DOE. That hurts!

The school already is trying to get by with a small budget, fewer electives and staff, and now the support funds it badly needs are gone. And Hayashi has supporters in jobs that didn’t exist before he became superintendent. Obviously students don’t come first at DOE headquarters.

Robert Gillchrest

Kailua-Kona

Use ranked-choice for all elections

Clifford Toyama advocated an election system that moves to the general election the two candidates receiving the most votes in the primary election, regardless of party affiliation (“Primary should advance only top 2 candidates,” Star-Advertiser, Letters, Sept. 3).

That is how our county elections are conducted, and I agree that conducting our state elections that way would be an improvement.

I suggest taking a step beyond that, and move to ranked-choice voting (RCV) with only general elections, eliminating primary elections. Gov. David Ige recently signed into law a bill to mandate such RCV for certain elections (“Ranked-choice voting set to be used in some special elections,” Star-Advertiser, May 11). We should expand that to cover all our elections.

Nobu Nakamoto

Aiea

Beware eliminating isles’ feral chickens

Hawaii lawmakers should read about the campaign to eliminate sparrows in China. Maybe they would think twice about eliminating feral chickens.

Maybe the chickens exist for an unknown ecological reason. There are many more nuisances than chickens in our civilization. Maybe lawmakers think chickens are the thing they can control.

Sandy Shimmon

Kailua

Gunmakers should be liable in shootings

There are many who believe that the way to protect yourself from gun violence is to have more people who carry guns.

In fact, the opposite is true. Statistics show that the more guns there are in a given community, the more likely someone is to get shot and killed, according to a report from the Harvard Injury Control Research Center.

Just as with the tobacco companies that were found liable for tobacco-related illnesses, we need to make gun manufacturers liable for the damage their products have wreaked in our country. Being a gun owner does not make you cool. It only makes your community a little less safe.

Lynne Johnson

Makiki

Restrict gun carry in public places

It is unsettling that Hawaii might move away from its laudable position of limiting gun violence by its strict gun regulation. Isn’t the research clear about the direct relationship between lax gun regulation and high levels of gun violence?

It is absurd to think that granting permits to carry guns in public spaces will make those spaces safer. Those public places in which people are allowed to carry guns will become off-limits to many citizens and therefore can no longer be called public places. Let’s continue to keep Hawaii safe by keeping guns out of public places.

Arthur Mersereau

Manoa

Develop hydrogen as source of energy

Our electric utilities are under stress. More power demand from electric vehicles. Less revenue from people going solar and not contributing to rate-base support of infrastructure. This needs to be addressed by the state Public Utilities Commission.

The PUC also needs to consider conversion of excess solar capacity to hydrogen storage for fuel as a backup to wind and solar when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine.

Excess solar is being dumped. It should be used to split water for infinite storage life as a backup fuel. No batteries needed. Our islands are literally surrounded by a power source: the Pacific Ocean. Hydrogen utilities can lead to hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles. Clean cars with no pollution. Fill up in five minutes.

Wayne N. Hedani

Wailuku

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