One of the biggest, yet one of the less controversial questions of Hawaii politics this year.

The tag: "Relating to the Board of Education." A very unappealing line, concealing an amendment that would, in a nutshell, change the BOE from being elected to being appointed by the Governor, whoever said Governor may be.

*COUGHDUKEAIONACOUGH*

This amendment will be on the November 2nd ballot, among the infamous elections.

My view? At first, I was leaning towards the status quo. After all, the people need a voice in electing our education representatives, right?

However, here's the problem: the people do not and have not used their voice in the slightest. Out of the already-lower-than-%50 of Hawaii's population actually voting, less than %50 of THAT actually voted for BOE members. That's less than (less than, less than, less than) %25 of Hawaii's population using their voice in the Board of Education Elections.

Out of the 6 finalists for the Board of Education from the Primary Election, 3 will emerge victorious.

Assuming that the votes are distributed across all 6 candidates, EVEN LESS than the %25 who vote for the BOE will choose the reps for the next few years. That's democracy for ya.

Really, what type of accountability does the BOE have now? A few people coming to their meetings and ranting on issues like furloughs and air conditioning?

Now, on to an APPOINTED school board. Now, I'm leaning towards this, simply because of the ensured competency of the representatives, and the direct accountability of the board to the Governor.

Ideally, the Statewide Board of Education should just be completely abolished and replaced by specialized local-level boards.