How in the world can some schools in Hawaii have as many as six more hours of instructional time per week than others?

We might never have discovered these disparities had the Legislature not required the Department of Education to submit a report about how close secondary schools are to meeting the new minimum instructional time requirements to kick in in 2014.

An interesting outcome of that report is a proposal to replace the minimum instructional time requirements with standardized bell schedules — which could have a number of benefits for the school system. Check out our story today.