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 President's MessageThis Year's Education Bills (Mary Anne Raywid)Affordable Shelter (Jackie Parnell)New LWV State Website (Andrea Dean)2006 Freedom of Information Compliance Audit (Jackie Parnell)League Makes it to the Wheel (Jean Aoki)Voter Owned Elections (Clean Elections) (Kory Payne)Education Committee Report (and why political reform...) (Mary Anne Raywid)Never Say it Makes No Difference (Jean Aoki)Court Rules Private Serial Communications Violate State's Sunshine LawMartha Black DiesGambling: Hopefully a Non-Issue This Legislative Session (Judy Rantala)Century of Accountability (Mary Anne Raywid)Prophecy Gone Wrong (Dwight D. Eisenhower)Chapter Reports: Kauai (Carol Bain)Chapter Reports: Honolulu (Jackie Parnell)Chapter Reports: Hawaii (Marianna Scheffer)Chapter Reports: Maui (Joshua Cooper) |
The Century of AccountabilityThe 21st will surely be remembered as the century of accountability. Kids are being held accountable for their learning -- through tests they must take annually -- and teachers are being held accountable for their teaching via the same means. Principals are going to be held accountable for how well they do their jobs too. Why not start holding legislators accountable for how well they do their jobs? What measures would we use? And how well would our legislators stack up? One of the measures ought to be how well they listen, shouldn't it? - - Do they ever change their minds after hearing testimony? But another should be some degree of consistency from year to year, shouldn't it -- as when a whole party votes solidly for something one year, and solidly against the same thing the next? How about how often they show up for committee hearings? And how informed they appear to be about the bills that are being heard? What else? Would it be good to get together a checklist for assessing legislators? If so, we need to decide what to put on it. Whether or not this becomes a project, it wouldn't hurt to give some thought to what items you think would belong on such a checklist. Keep it in mind and maybe we ought to have one for the next legislative session! Mary Anne Raywid |
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