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Feb 1987 | April 1987 |
 League Conference (Nov. 14-15, 1986) (Pat Shutt)President's Message (Anne Lee)League at the LegislatureHelp Make this a Year of Unparalleled SuccessConstitutional BicentennialNoteworthiesState Program: Selection, Adoption, Use as a Basis for ActionPortion of Election Laws Study CompletedFundraising Update |
League Conference (Nov. 14-15, 1986)"Action for Education--A New Era for Hawaii"
People in the community who know that I am involved with the League frequently say to me, around election time, "You must be really busy now with elections." I reply, "Yes, were really busy trying to get voters and candidates to focus on the issues!" After the election they usually say to me, "Well, I bet you are looking forward to a rest!" I reply, "No, now the hard work begins - translating issues into solutions, working with the legislature, the administration, the agencies and the citizens to bring about meaningful change!" This is where we are now. The elections are over and now the hard work begins. The League is a non-partisan but very political organization. We are a group that believes in government of the people, by the people and for the people. In order for that still revolutionary concept to work, it takes informed citizens who are active participants in government affairs. That is what the League has been doing for 66 years. We're political, but non-partisan participants. We lobby, we litigate, but only on issues that we have studied and come to some reasoned agreement as to solutions. We are a multi-issue group and we know that there are no simple solutions to most problems. We are not afraid to tackle difficult issues, The first piece of legislation the League took on was the passage of the Shepard-Towner Act in 1921. Our most recent national issues were tax reform and national security and Senator Packwood recently commended the League for building the constituency for tax reform and seeing it through compromise and completion. We are in the halls of Congress on clean air, clean water, sensible defense, adequate funding for the poor and foreign trade issues. We are at the Hawaii. legislature on juvenile justice, land use, and reapportionment issues. We are at City Hall on planning and zoning, transportation and charter issues. And now we are educating ourselves and the public on education issues. In my job as a national board member, I travel across the country frequently. Knowing the Hawaii League was embarking on a study of education, I was struck by the number of times education surfaced as a campaign issue all across the country. There seemed to be no clear message of, "if I am elected here is what I will do....". Rather they simply said, "We've got to do something about the public school situation." I find the absence of a magic bullet comforting. This says to me that the opportunity for creating community consensus is indeed timely. It is our hope that our study of education will be the beginning of community understanding and agreement on new directions for education. We will all need to create a constituency for creative change. Pat Shutt
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