Legislature fails high-tech sector

Jay Fidell’s column is spot-on (“Session shows disinterest in tech and clean energy,” Star-Advertiser, Think Tech, May 14).

Hawaii’s legislative leaders clearly showed they favor glitz and glamor jobs for movies over science, technology, engineering and math (STEM)-related jobs by continuing to extend tax credits for the film industry but not high technology.

Little wonder that quietly much of the truly high-technology jobs have fled the islands over the last five years. This Legislature is now screaming for every single person in high tech to leave.

Perhaps it is better that these folks find a true haven of high-tech jobs rather than dicker around here and stagnate. 

Von Kaneshiro
Liliha

Obama displays his incompetence

With Internal Revenue Service abuses, Benghazi equivocations, Associated Press phone-record seizures and health care implosions (all in today’s news), it is becoming increasingly clear that President Barack Obama cannot even run the government, which is his job, much less run the country, which is not.

Michael G. Palcic
St. Louis Heights

Ad honors teachers and their work

Jim Wolery’s criticism of the Hawaii State Teachers Association’s ads starts gently, but sharpens toward the end (“It seems HSTA ads are a distraction,” Star-Advertiser, Letters, May 14). He doesn’t like that the contract costs millions of dollars and has no connection to improved achievement. He fails to see that this contract addresses his concern by connecting pay raises to student performance.

But don’t forget, not everything taught is measured on a test.

I think the ad’s purpose is neither to inform nor convince, but to celebrate National Teacher Appreciation Week, the commitment of teachers and what the profession means to the community.

We all know teachers who spend money from their own pockets to provide for the needs of students in their class, and who take time away from their own family to do what needs to be done for students to learn. Isn’t that legacy, that level of commitment and generosity worth celebrating?

Jonathan Gillentine
Kaneohe

Teachers do more than shown on TV

There’s a commercial on TV that follows a “day in the life” of a teacher. At the end of the commercial, a child narrator states, “Hawaii’s public school teachers: It seems like they never stop working.”

Being a Hawaii public school teacher myself, I can safely say that the activities you see the teacher do in the commercial show only part of the tasks she accomplishes during a typical school day. Public school teachers don’t just seem to never stop working, they actually never stop working. 

If citizens who criticize teachers walked a mile in our shoes, they would be physically and mentally exhausted after just one day. Teachers are soldiers who, with expertise, experience and skill, persist relentlessly at their arduous jobs, working for the benefit of all. No gripe.

Connie Wickware
Kalihi Uka

UH president needs broad experience

Nolan Ahn was right on in his suggestions for choosing and overseeing the next University of Hawaii president (“Some guidelines for next UH president,” Star-Advertiser, Letters, May 14).

I would add: No housing allowance, no deferred compensation (unless it comes out of his or her pay), and no car allowance. This should apply to other university officers as well.

The candidates should have public administration training and experience, including human-resource expertise.

In the meantime, it’s hoped the regents will get some training in how to administer, and how not to be cowed by advanced degrees.

In short, look at recent experience and do not do what’s been done for the last few hires.

Lastly, I am amazed by the lack of student and parent anger over the current situation. I am a graduate who paid $85 per semester when starting pay for grads was $450 a month. That figure has gone up six or seven times, while tuition has increased more than 40 times. Have we seen that much improvement in the basic performance of the university?

I, too, don’t want the Legislature to interfere unduly with the university but am glad that lawmakers at least have taken responsibility to investigate the outrageous lack of administrative performance there.

Tom Tizard
Kailua

Colleges overpay football coaches

Outrageous! (“Bloated pay of university presidents is scandalous,” Star-Advertiser, May 14).

Why, some of them must be making nearly half as much as their football coaches!

George Grace
Makiki

Base water rates on rainfall estimates

In determining the volume of sewage per household, the city Department of Environmental Services takes the number of gallons on a household’s Board of Water Supply bill, discounts it by a 20 percent “irrigation factor” and charges a per-gallon rate on the remaining 80 percent (“Billing fee gets tempers boiling,” Star-Advertiser, May 12).

This is akin to one shoe fits all. In areas where rainfall is very little, customers are paying more to keep their property half-decent, especially in areas that have community associations that require an individual to keep his or her lawn presentable.

Rainfall is pretty well documented for the different areas of Oahu. Why can’t a different percentage discount be developed for the different areas that receive rainfall?

John P. Gallagher
Ewa Beach