The Maui news. [volume] (Wailuku, Maui, H.I.) 1900-current, 1922-07-11
SCHOOL BUILDING PROGRAMS

Plans for a comprehensive and concrete ten years school build
ing program for the whole territory are to be prepared by the de-
partment of public instruction and superintendent Vaughan Mae
Caughey is taking the subject up with members of the department,
chairmcn Of the boards Of supervisors and other county officials,
it was reported in an Associated Press dispatch from Honolulu Satur-
day afternoon. In the absence Of definite news it is premature to
critcEe the suggestion other than along general lines.
For the department and the boards of supervisors to get to-
gether on a building program extending into the future is an ex-
cellent idea providing the powers of the boards as to how much
money can be spent in any given year without interfering with other
county projects and conduct be not curtailed or interfered with. 1t
has been and is being done here on Maui. AS superintendent Mac
Caughey is quoted as saying, the Maui High and Grammar School
building and the one on which work is progressing at Puunene are
examples of the wisdom of a general building policy. The Maui
program calls or similar concrete buildings to be erected in La
hama, Waikiki and Paia and later in other communities and Maui is
carrying out its program.
AS to the wisdom of laying out a ten years program at this parti-
cular time, there is room for argument. 1t can be said with truth
that when counties are struggling to make both ends meet by reason
OF an antlquated and ll-worklng tax scheme whereby the tax rate
has to be fixed on the previous years valuation and if the valuation
be reduced the territory and the schools get their needs first and
the counties have to make the best of things if their estimated rev.
cnue falls short, the counties should 90 slow in making a building
budget far in advance. 1t can also be said with truth that when
counties are so hard pressed as is Hawaii this year it is a poor time
to attempt to look far ahead.
If the counties are to be called upon further to abrogate rights
and powers of self determination and self government. the proposal
is to be looked upon with apprehension. There is too little power
in the counties and too much in territorial departments now.
School taxes are collected on a basis of population and assessed
valuation, through the per capita and the property taxes, but school
funds, as this paper has had occasion repeatedly to call to attention,
are distributed on a different basis. The board Of public instruction
decides where the schools are to be and how many grades shall be
taught. In this county there is an excessive number of schools that
that do not teach above the fifth grade so that in the distribution of
~ wv NihAINh VI
school age for whom no schools are provided, the children who would
be in the sixth, seventh and eighth grades if there were schools pro-
v1ded for them. The department is the authority that says there
shall or shall not be provision for such children and it is the author
ity that says how the funds shall be distributed. If Maui were
awarded a per capita sum for children of school age, whether in at
tendance or not, there would not have to be a curtaiing of instruct
ors in some of the schools and there would be more rural schools that
teach the work of higher grades.
The idea of a well laid out but tentative program for a period
of years is, in itself, good. However, it should be elastic enough
not to place a handicap on the counties in the carrying out of arrange
ments. An urgent demand may arise three or five years from now
IN some community where no provision has been made in the program.
1t may be advisable for a project for a new school building in one
community to be delayed that another and more important project
be carried out. The counties are the best judges of such conditions.
rather than a territorial department.
Maui News is not attacking the proposal for building programs
for the counties at this time, is reserving criticism until something
definite has been offered, but it stands opposed to any surrender of
county rights and to the indefensible method of assessing and dis
ulbutlng school tax money that is now in vogue.
1t Is SAID that the next Legislature is planning sOme steps in cur
tallment OF the powers of the department of public instruction and
under such circumstances it might be well to wait. On the other
hand the department Of public instruction should be in a position
to lay before the next Legislature its needs for the biennial period
ana tentative plans for a still longer time. By so doing it can COM
mand a greater respect from the legislature than it now has.