Политика лицемерия и бездействие законодателей тормозят реформы системы образования на Гуаме

To paraphrase the famous political advisor and philosopher, Niccolo Machievelli, “in governing one must have appreciation for hypocrisy.” You have to be strong as a lion and sly as a fox. He also said that leaders do not actually have to be good or even do good things, they just have to look good. How little has changed since the Middle Ages? Who needs provincial Italy when we have in the Marianas Islands the politics of education? This past week ,the Guam Education Board continued a meeting to discuss a number of routine items. At some point, someone was stoking rumors that the board was discussing redistricting. In the last term, we had not discussed redistricting, and this kind of change would require open hearings at the board. This was simply not the case and people got upset over these rumors. Others were upset about the various school building sharing measures taken. Still others were upset because they have obvious feuds with various officials at Guam Department of Education and this was simply an opportunity to use the abstraction of a false rumor to voice their grievances. There is nothing new to this type of behavior and the public likely knows this pattern well. In the end, these mostly were not Education Board questions, they are questions for lawmakers. Good luck there. The actual source of the rumor was simply lower-level administrators brainstorming on various alternatives to the school building issue. This happens all the time. To become policy, this kind of report would have been framed for a board decision by the superintendent and then sent to the board for full public processing. The vocal board members at the recent meeting knew this and yet they spoke as if this was not the process. From a standpoint of technical policy, there are always four choices available for consideration. In any given issue, resources or emphasis can increase, decrease, stay the same, or terminate. In the case of Simon Sanchez High School, the stay the same choice has prevailed for many years, and a series of lawmakers have kicked the SSHS concern down the road, all the while promising they will get things done. And yet, you, my dear public, still believe them. One point raised in the media was Board Member Angel Sablan criticizing Superintendent Wonpat. Angel has been a good colleague and he is running for the Guam Legislature. He should make a good senator. But he was also Board Chair for two years and he and the former superintendent got along like Batman and Robin. Surely that dynamic duo should have been able to get progress on SSHS, yet it didn’t happen. Senator Chris Barnett was chair of education in the legislature for two years and he had a genuine and strong interest in the SSHS issue. He is a dynamic force in his own right, yet nothing happened. In fact, he stepped away from the education committee in this term and has since exiled himself to the Retirement and Disabilities committees among others. The reality is that the Guam Education system needs to be reorganized and righted in a number of ways. The road to hell is supposed to be paved with good intentions. In the last thirty years, the Legislature has made education policy a superhighway to hell. It can be fixed, but the next governor and the next legislature need to commit to do it. Not talk or describe, but act. We have all kinds of great things to look at in this regard. In the draft Guam Constitution, which is still on the table and ready to approve, Article VII of this document envisioned a unified Education Commission for Guam that covered all aspects of public education. It is an idea well worth discussing again. Here is an interesting example. GDOE, UOG and GCC are fiefdoms. What would happen if we streamlined all of them so they worked better together? Also, what would happen if we used a space or room inventory across a system that worked together? We would not have the building crisis we have today. As I have said before, we can make these things better. We just need to stop allowing various political minions the luxury of hypocrisy. Jesus said in Matthew 7:16, “by their fruits you shall know them.” Politicians who promise everything and deliver nothing are the false prophets of our modern day. We have to start making them do the tasks we have elected them to do. In this modern age, you can see what they do and don’t do. Right now, they have been allowed to deliver nothing for many years. Stand and deliver, people! I have decided that many of these tasks are not fit for humans. Maybe some of our leaders should start acting like Klingons if that is what it takes to get things done. Beam me up Scotty!