PRESIDENCY

PUBLIC FUNDING OF ELECTIONS ESSENTIAL

Your editorial supporting public funding for presidential election campaigns is right on. It's important to understand, and you do, how vital it is to actually cut the ties between private campaign donations and the use of public funds.

For the public to get its money's worth, a candidate needs to run on public funds or not. It's the community agenda or the corporate agenda. When public funding is mixed with private funding, the ties to private funders and their payback agendas remain in place. That's a raw deal for us.

Partial public funding programs degrade the intention of public funding to level the playing field so every person has equal access to government.

Voter-owned elections are for us, the people. We are the ones who benefit. Isn't that what our government is supposed to be all about?

WAIAWA

GOLF COURSE WATER DOESN'T MAKE SENSE

Does the Commission on Water Resource Management ever talk to the Board of Water Supply? There is certainly a serious and potentially frightening disconnect when the Board of Water Supply exhorts us to save water, and the Commission on Water Resource Management sells this precious resource off to the highest bidder, Gentry's Waiawa Development in this case.

The permit to draw 1 million gallons (yes, you read it correctly, 1 million gallons) every day from the Central O'ahu aquifer for two golf courses has been OK'd while we are still recovering from a serious drought. And, with climate change, we are no longer assured of the rains we used to have. On top of that, with the booming tourist trade, water use and needs are increasing all the time. And Kamehameha Schools, landlord of the property, is part of this golf course plan.

That is certainly not looking after the 'aina. Haven't we been told, time and time again, that the aquifers are at dangerously low levels?

Gentry has already stated that 10,000 to 12,000 homes would be built as part of the golf course development, whether or not it had permits for the golf course. Why in the world can't the golf courses be developed after a gray water system has been put in place? If the golf courses can't be built until this occurs, you can bet that Gentry would be behind an impetus to get the gray water process rolling as quickly as possible.

SCIENCE

KONA CHARTER SCHOOL RECEIVED GREAT HONOR

Congratulations to West Hawai'i Exploration Academy in Kona for recently receiving a distinguished award for its science achievements from Intel and Scholastic Schools of Distinction. The charter high school is one of 10 high schools across the nation, and the only one from Hawai'i, to be chosen to receive this prestigious award. This is like the Academy Awards for schools.

Delegates from the school flew to Washington, D.C., to be presented with the award on Oct. 6. Hawai'i's congressmen paid tribute to the delegates.

Charter schools are doing a good job in spite of the fact they don't get funding equal to the regular public schools. It seems apparent that our legislators and the BOE don't want them to succeed.

NAVY, MINISTER

U.S. FORCES COMPLICIT IN QUEEN'S OVERTHROW

Thurston Twigg-Smith, in a Nov. 3 letter, stated that the overthrow was not conducted under the auspices of the United States. Perhaps it was not ordered by the United States, but it was certainly conducted with the complicity of the U.S. Navy and U.S. Minister John L. Stevens.

In "Shoal of Time," Gavan Daws states, "Secretary of State Gresham told [President] Cleveland that Minister Stevens, an accredited representative of the United States, had helped to overthrow the Hawaiian monarchy. Gresham ... suggested that in the name of justice the monarchy ought to be restored. ... There had been no genuine revolution, wrote Gresham. The queen had been overawed by Minister Stevens and the troops from the [USS] Boston. 'Her submission was thus coerced. The affair was discreditable to all who engaged in it. It would lower our national standard to endorse a selfish and dishonorable scheme of a lot of adventurers.' "

WATER

THERE ARE PLENTY OF SOURCES GOING UNTAPPED

The Oct. 26 article about the water requirements for Gentry's proposed 3,700-acre Waiawa development cited the Sierra Club's objection to the Commission on Water Resource Management's approval of this project. The article also quoted the Board of Water Supply's home page of its Web site: "We are draining it (water) far faster than nature can replenish it."

The Board of Water Supply's Web site statement is simply not true. If it were, we would be reading headlines about how O'ahu's artesian water levels are dropping every year. Also, there used to be four sugar plantations on O'ahu that pumped as much irrigation water as the Board of Water Supply does today.

There are large aquifers beyond Wahiawa that used to supply irrigation water for the Waialua agricultural companies' cane fields that are not being used today.

If we do not allow new housing developments like Gentry's proposed Waiawa community, the price of housing on O'ahu will go through the roof. Accordingly, the Board of Water Supply must be encouraged to develop new sources, including nonpotable sources for irrigation purposes.

STADIUM BAN

DON'T SPOIL GAME FOR RESPONSIBLE DRINKERS

I think the Aloha Stadium Authority has its thinking backward. It makes more sense to ban drinking inside the stadium. The football game is about 3 1/2 hours long. Time enough to sober up. Too bad about the stadium's cut in beer sales.

The university is trying to figure out ways to attract bigger crowds. So far, it has driven many away with the ticket pricing; the parking is a mess. I'd rather pay $40, watch the game at home, invite a bunch of friends, drink and eat to our hearts' content. The stadium, meanwhile, will lose out on the concession revenue, the attendance will be maybe 15,000, and the authority will have the satisfaction of doing something by banning drinking. Give me a break!

The real problems are the ones who drink throughout the game. They drink one, two, three, four, five, or more beers as the game progresses.

Don't spoil it for the responsible drinkers. Ban the ones who cause the trouble, like how the bars do it.

KAILUA

WATER METER CHARGE BY BWS DISAPPOINTING

As a member of the Lani-Kailua Outdoor Circle, I am frustrated and disappointed to know that the Board of Water Supply plans to charge $50,000 to provide a water meter to the next phase of the Kailua Road landscaping project ("Median project hits snag," Oct. 14).

Landscaping the median strips along the entry to Kailua has been a decade-long effort involving the time, money and effort of many Kailua residents who have worked long and hard and raised tens of thousands of dollars to pay for this project, which is a great source of pride to this community.

One of the main sources of funding for this landscaping work is the annual "I love Kailua" town party. It is a rousing success because the people know the proceeds will go toward the Outdoor Circle's "clean and green" projects, which beautify the community and the roads people travel on every day.

We need the Board of Water Supply to join us in our efforts and work with us to make this project a reality.

STADIUM

JUST BAN ALL ALCOHOL

The Aloha Stadium Authority is approving an alcohol ban in the stadium's parking lot, but that same authority is authorizing vendors to still sell alcohol in the stadium. If Lt. Gov. Aiona's proposal is to ban alcohol, then why go halfway? Go all the way.

STANDARDS GRADING

SCHOOL PASS/FAIL SYSTEM HAS RETURNED IN DISGUISE

In the cyclical world of education philosophy, so-called standards-based grading is essentially the latest incarnation of the pass-fail grading systems that educationalists attempted to foist off on public schools 30 years ago. Then, educationalists argued, students either knew what they needed to know (pass) or they didn't (fail).

Today, they argue, students either know what they need to know ("met") or they don't ("not met"). Then, as now, the fact that some students actually work harder than others, learn more then others, or are naturally gifted in some areas is seen as irrelevant, or worse, elitist. Mediocrity rules. Never mind that if standards-based report cards are adopted for secondary schools, universities and scholarships will suddenly find Hawai'i public school graduates with a transcript full of meaningless gibberish.

What makes the current attempt so insidious is that it attempts to tie standards-based instruction (which deals with what students should be taught and has a clearly agreed-upon meaning) in with standards-based grading (which deals with how students should be assessed and has absolutely no agreed-upon meaning) under the umbrella of something called standards-based education.

Like standards-based grading, standards-based education (as distinct from standards-based instruction) has no agreed-upon meaning, but it makes a marvelous-sounding smokescreen. In my opinion, standards-based instruction is a very good thing (and most private schools in Hawai'i have always had clear, coherent standards), and standards-based grading is a very bad thing (note that none of Hawai'i's major private schools plan to go that route).

The current fiasco with the elementary school version of standards-based report cards is nothing compared to what will happen if this madness translates to secondary school report cards as promised by the DOE.

It's time for students, parents and the Legislature to take a hard look at what is going on with assessment and grading in our public schools.

EMBARRASSMENT

PLEASE, JUST FIX ALA WAI HARBOR

As a 20-year resident of the Ala Wai Boat Harbor, I have become exasperated by our leaders at DLNR and in the Legislature for their lack of attention to one of Hawai'i's true jewels.

It should not be left to the numerous Mainland boating magazines and the Roy Disneys of the world to plead for action on this valuable resource. Surely it is apparent to the powers that be that the revenue from slip fees alone is enough to properly maintain the harbors without the need to use funds from other needed programs.

Good grief, the excise tax alone from the associated boating industries should be enough to inspire the Legislature into action without any more years or even days of delay. Are they not aware that the boating industry is one of the top industries in the nation in regards to dollars generated? Maintenance costs on these boats are phenomenal.

Industries such as fishing equipment suppliers, seafood distributors, diesel mechanics, electronics, painting, marine plumbers, refrigeration technicians, rigging specialists, fuel distributors, welders, fabricators, recyclers, the numerous parts and equipment suppliers, outboard engine technicians, rigging specialists, sail makers and yacht brokers, just to name a few, all benefit in being able to support their families in this specialized industry, and they pay taxes to boot.

Let us not forget the myriad tourist-related boating activities and the millions generated for the state coffers. Cannot our elected and appointed leaders see the amount of dollars generated here?

Five years ago, Ko Olina Marina was completed and now has a waiting list at $12 per foot per month. The value of the vessels in this world-class marina are in the multimillions of dollars. Repairing the Ala Wai would have the same effect there.

It has been estimated by boating division officials that approximately $40,000 per month is being lost by not repairing the condemned docks. Isn't that $480,000 per year? Lots of money, I think, and more docks are being condemned each day. These figures take into consideration the artificially low fees currently being charged boaters. Just think of the income if the harbor were a world-class marina like Ko Olina or Newport Beach and the rates were double what they are today, which, by the way, would still be a bargain for boaters. The rental income alone would rapidly replace the investment.

I for one don't believe privatizing the harbor is necessary, but it does seem the only way out of this mess given the total neglect and intransigence of the DLNR and legislators. They certainly could fix the problem if they wanted to.

Come on, DLNR and legislators, enough with meeting after meeting and excuses. Please visualize the importance of the harbor and boating revenue in general, and simply declare the harbor a state asset and restore it from the general fund.

It is an embarrassment and a travesty that the harbor has been neglected this long.