>>>So their solution for being to stupid to budget money properly was to rob all the kids of 20% of their education - which to me seems crazy as you're sort of propagating the stupidity further by not teaching the kids. Yeah don't think I want the states having too much control here - and hey it's not that I'm against states rights - but sometimes there is a need for the feds to be running the show to set proper standards, and in this case - assuming you don't have someone like Betsy DeVos running the show, I pick the feds over the states.
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>Sorry, meant to be addressed to Victor: as a consummate noser-around, while in Hawaii recently I took an interest in healthcare funding that connected to education in Honolulu for reasons I'm sure you know. I encountered a theme that for years teachers in Honolulu have had low morale, that there has been such a teacher shortage that some schools have been employing unqualified teachers to act as little better than babysitters, that kids wag school without consequence, that too many Hawaiians leave school without even a proper basic education, that this has been covered up and denied to the huge disadvantage of students. Is that your perception? If so, who is best placed to improve it - a fed in a Washington office or a task force appointed by the state governor? Yeah I know that's loaded since the governor's taskforce already exists and has done good things- but wouldn't you agree with DeVos that local empowerment can have good results? I get your point that you need central control of curriculum and standards so people can't start teaching dogma or discriminating on gender, but what's wrong with a local taskforce with sensible members engaging positively with teachers and communities to come up with an island solution that plays to local strengths and doesn't waste time on grizzly bear decrees? ;-)

Very well thought out questions. I will try to answer best I can for what I know.
Yes - the teachers morale is very low. They do not get paid enough - as you know the cost of living on the islands it very high - and the teachers to not make enough. They've had to work without contracts and threaten to strike just to finally get a contract. Not to mention it gets pretty hot sometimes and a lot of the schools have no A/C and in some cases lack fans for the classrooms. Every year people (myself included) donate fans for the kids in the classrooms. When the teachers can't make enough to live off of - they quit and move to the mainland or take up other careers - and then you have to pick from the pool of teachers left. Sooner or later all that's left is the lousy teachers.
The kids level of education in the public schools in Hawaii - well it kinda sucks. My girly-girl coughed up the $ to send her kid to private school all the way though because of how bad it is. I have a surfer friend that grew up in Hawaii, then when he was in 8th or 9th grade his family moved to Texas. He told me they put him back 1 grade when he got there and said they really should of put him back 2 grades because of how far behind he was, despite getting ok grades in Hawaii.

The way things work now in the USA is that if a school district is performing poorly, the feds come in and take over the school district. How they determine what is acceptable is a long story that I won't go into here, but there are plenty of people who don't like how it's determined. After things are back in shape - then the feds step back out of the picture. Plenty of school districts have had to go though this in the past.
Now moving forward - sure I'd like to see the state be on the front lines - but when they try do so something dumb like cut 20% of the school days out of the year then the feds need to be able to step in and say 'noooo you're not doing that". The basic requirements of education standards needs to come from one central location - the feds (unless miss nitwit gets the job anyway) so that there is a uniform level of education requirements for all students everywhere. If the sates want to make it better and expand on it fine - but there needs to be an established minimum requirements. I don't want one state saying all the math you need is add and subtract and other state saying you need calculus. Now that being said, the states do need some ability to tailor things their students might need. As you can imagine the hospitality industry is huge in Hawaii - and most of the students in Hawaii that stay in Hawaii after they finish school will probably end up working in that field - so they have classes about that in the schools because it's needed. Not so sure you'd need that in hillbilly Arkansas - but you might want to be teaching some agricultural classes. So i think it takes not just the feds, but the states and cities and the communities as well - but the basic level of education requirements needs to be set at the federal level.

That is just my 2 cents worth - but I assure you I could be convinced otherwise. Taking to someone with a masters degree in Education will get you wiser viewpoints that I could offer.