With the opening of the Legislature comes hope from some Hawai'i residents that maybe this year lawmakers will focus on sustainability issues, improvements in public education and long-term care.

Management consultant Jon Matsuo said he wants to see lawmakers set aside politics and get down to the business of improving the state.

"I would hope for more substance in the discussion rather than turning things toward political agendas and trying to make the other side look bad," he said.

He is particularly interested in seeing more support for public charter schools, both in the Legislature and from the Department of Education.

"They did not see fit to treat the charter schools in the same manner as they do the rest of the population, thereby not serving the children and their parents who choose to go that route ... and it's their duty," he said.

Nanakuli resident Bill Prescott said he wants to see students on the Wai'anae Coast and other disadvantaged areas have more experienced teachers and a stabilized staff. Currently, he said the schools in his neighborhood are used as a place for teachers to earn tenure before they transfer to more affluent areas.

"We're forever training teachers for these schools in higher-income areas," he said. "I feel it's up to the Legislature to create legislation that will require transfers to be beneficial to the schools and the students that gave them a job."

Iris Fukui, a retired educator who now is a palliative care volunteer for Kaiser Hospital, said it's time for the state to offer some sort of long-term-care insurance.

"They always talk about the elderly, and they talk about long-term care but they never do anything about it," she said. "There are bills, but they never get passed."

Meanwhile, some elderly are not taking responsibility for themselves and are passing their wealth to their children so they can go on welfare and Medicaid, she said.

As life spans lengthen, "there is all this potential of huge medical expense and care expense," she said. "The Legislature is very short-sighted."

Others are looking for long-term care of the environment. Jeff Merz, an urban planner who lives in Waikiki, said he wants lawmakers to come up with alternative energy initiatives, along with alternative forms of transportation, such as the Superferry.

Helen Gibson Ahn also wants to see sustainability issues take a front-row seat.

"Preserving the environment is a critical issue and slowing down the seemingly unchecked development of land is crucial," she said by e-mail. "Maintaining and repairing our infrastructure to include roads, sewer and other utilities also needs to be given a higher priority."

Helen Nakano, a founding officer of Malama O Manoa, pointed to a need for energy conservation as well as more cautious development.

"I think that we're not looking at whether our Islands can sustain all this development," she said. "If all the projects come on board, we'll be so much denser, then we're in trouble.

"I wasn't interested in the environment 10-15 years ago, but I've become increasingly concerned about what's happened to our Islands."

Reach Treena Shapiro at tshapiro@honoluluadvertiser.com.