The passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has provided the incentive for lawmakers to reconsider their opposition to providing a tool for change in the state's public schools system.

That tool is a process called "reconstitution," which would empower the state's education superintendent with the authority to redirect staff and change the overall mission at schools where progress has stalled.

Superintendent Patricia Hamamoto has stated her intent to try again, proposing a law to enable reconstitution when the Legislature convenes in January. That is encouraging, because the top administrator of the school system needs the power to redeploy Department of Education staff to boost academic success.

Her chances of enlisting legislators in support have just been bolstered with the allotment of stimulus funds for such a project. Under an ARRA program called School Improvement Grants, up to $1.5 million could go to each school that a state selects for improvement — an infusion of money that many Hawai'i schools need.

But Hawai'i has only a long shot at winning that money unless there's a means of implementing a drastic turnaround.

Union leaders consider reconstitution an end run on collective bargaining and are strongly opposed. But reconstitution would involve union negotiations over the reassignment of staff for schools to be dismantled and rebuilt. Unions could not block the reorganization itself — nor should they be able to block a critical course correction.

They also charge that this initiative places an unfair burden of blame on teachers for the failure of schools that contend with socioeconomic challenges and language barriers. But reconstitution is far less a reflection of any shortcomings of individual teachers than an effort to assemble the right combination of teachers, administrators and staff to meet a particular school's needs.

Reconstitution would only be considered after a school has been under federal No Child Left Behind sanctions ("in restructuring") for four years without demonstrable success. And it may not be the best solution in all of those cases.

The process of course needs rules adopted as guides — which test scores to review, for example, and whom to consult on the school's needs.

But ultimately it's the superintendent's duty to strive toward the 2014 deadline No Child set for all schools to meet standards. The person at the top needs to hold the reins to drive Hawai'i public schools toward meeting that goal.

It's time to give her the authority to do just that.