HONOLULU -- With less than two weeks to go before the primary election, the leading candidates for lieutenant governor took part in a forum Monday night about public education, talking about everything from auditing the state education department to improving early childhood education.

Only about 75 people showed up to the forum featuring six Democrats and two Republicans at the University of Hawaii at Manoa architecture auditorium. Most people in the audience were connected to one lieutenant governor candidate or another.

State Sen. Norman Sakamoto, a Democrat who represents Salt Lake, has chaired the senate education committee for the last 10 years. "I'd like to use my years of experience, the relationships I've built, higher ed, early ed, K-12, we're poised for success. Early learning council is set up. Regents have been changed," Sakamoto said.

Former Makiki state representative Brian Schatz, the former state Democratic Party Chairman and one of the leaders of the Obama campaign in Hawaii in 2008, said, "Early childhood education is really the smartest money that we can possibly invest, not just in education, but anywhere. We've got four out of five kids who are entering kindergarten not ready to learn. And that's where I think we need to focus."

State Rep. Jon Riki Karamatsu, also a Democrat, advocated more project-based learning, like robotics, video and design. "A lot of kids, maybe they may not be the best test takers, but they may be great at doing projects that have an end result using courses that you need, such as math, science and English," he said.

Karmatsu also wants to set up a state reserve fund for education to guarantee that school furloughs will never happen again.

Former Wahiawa and North Shore State Sen. Robert “Bobby” Bunda, a Democrat, has been a legislator for 28 years. He is the former state senate president. "I believe I can help the next governor in reference to education, pushing educational priorities. Pushing things like giving financial resources down to the school level," Bunda said.

“I was the first legislator to speak against Furlough Fridays,” said State Sen. Gary Hooser, a Democrat from Kauai. "We need to spend more on public education. Punahou School spends $20,000 a student. We spend, what, $11-12,000 a student," Hooser said.

Democratic State Rep. Lyla Berg told the crowd she’s the only career educator among the lieutenant governor candidates. She was public school teacher and administrator, including a stint as principal at Kailua Intermediate School.

"The first thing we need to do is to rectify the management and operational practices and procedures within the Department of Education and that means looking at the inefficiencies," Berg said. She’s concerned whether the DOE will use $75 million in federal Race to The Top funds properly.

Both of the Republicans running for lieutenant governor are women.

Attorney Adrienne King, now in private practice, was a deputy prosecutor and the first woman to try a murder case in Hawaii.

"I think that's the top priority in the state and the next administration is a full, comprehensive fiscal and management audit of the DOE. The last time we had one was 1973," King said, echoing a theme being pushed by Republican candidate for governor James “Duke” Aiona, the current lieutenant governor.

King said she'd think "outside the government box" about ways to improve education if elected lieutenant governor.

State Rep. Lynn Finnegan, who's the state House Republican leader, is also ranking Republican on the state house education committee. "The priorities I've set forth for education is to really be able to have that local decision making and then being able to hold the people accountable when they make those decisions," said Finnegan.

Finnegan told the audience that charter schools are “giving competition to the traditional public schools, saying that we can do things differently.”

Neal Milner, a University of Hawaii political science professor and political analyst moderated the forum

Three organizations cosponsored the forum: Save Our Schools Hawaii, the American Studies Graduate Students Association and the University of Hawaii-Manoa.

The groups will sponsor an education forum with the candidates for governor next Sunday, Sept. 12, from 2 to 4 p.m.