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KEIKI DESERVE
From the HSTA Speakers Bureau
Public
education in
Hawaii has the
potential pow
er to democ
ratize and
make our so
ciety more
equal, fair,
and just. W
hen the prim
ary desired
social good
or outcom
e is the
development
of human
potential
rather
than
economic
growth,
the entire
design of ed
ucation is
transformed
.
SCHOOLS OUR
KEIKI DESERVE
Public schools play a critical role in any kind of democratic political
system and should serve as centers of community and collaborative
learning. The first implication of this renewed emphasis on the
public schools as centers for community building is a shift in the
understanding of the purposes of public goods and resources. The
purpose of education is to provide opportunities for young people
to explore what it means to be fully human. Young people need
support and guidance in discovering who they are, as humans, in
relation to others, and in exploring different ways of expressing
themselves and developing meaningful relationships with the
world around them. Young people should be given opportunities
to acquire a wider rather than narrower range of skills, because
all members of society need a range of knowledge and capacities,
broad and deep enough to know how to further that knowledge
should they so desire. Public schools in Hawaii should educate
children so that they can be effective and reasonable participants
in public decision-making, and, perhaps most importantly, so that
they understand the intrinsic value of intellectual pursuits to serve
the ends of life-enhancement.
Current Socio-Economic
Contextual Challenges
Attentiveness to the whole child requires not only a broadening
of the curriculum but also a willingness to examine the particular
struggles faced by the students in our public schools. Although
the particular expression of these struggles varies across the
state, HIDOE students in public schools generally come from
less privileged ethnic and social class backgrounds than their
counterparts in private schools: a full 52% of the student population
in Hawaii public schools come from economically disadvantaged
households, those which meet the income eligibility guidelines
for free or reduced-price meals (less than or equal to 185% of
Federal Poverty Guidelines).[8] Hawaii public schools serve
students from a unique blend of races, cultures, and experiences. In
school year 2013-2014, Native Hawaiians constituted the largest
group of students in the Hawaii public school system, making up
26% of the population, while Filipino Americans made up 22%,
whites 17%, Japanese Americans 9%, Micronesians 4%, Latinos
3.8%, Samoans 3.5% and Chinese Americans 3.2%; our HIDOE
teaching population, on the other hand, is primarily white and
Japanese-American.[9] Addressing the social justice implications
of this disparity will require that we take seriously the importance
of growing our own teachers within our communities, young
leaders who understand and want to serve their communities.
While there are differences within and between these groups of
students, there are also important social indicators that suggest that
our failure to attend to the whole child does not serve us well as
a community. Taken together, students of Hawaiian, Filipino, and
other Pacific Islander descent make up the majority, about 55%,
of our public school students. These same groups of students
are extremely underrepresented at the major institution of higher
education in Hawaii, University of Hawaii at Manoa. Moreover,
according to the results of the Youth Risk Behavior Survey,
conducted every two years by the Center for Disease Control, the
students in Hawaii public schools report persistent and increasingly
trenchant problems of poor nutrition, lack of physical activity,
obesity, drug and alcohol abuse, bullying, and sexual exploitation.
d requires
e whole chil
th
to
s
es
en
v
Attenti
curriculum
ning of the
de
oa
br
a
ly
not on
examine the
illingness to
w
a
so
al
but
the
by
faced
ruggles
st
ar
ul
ic
part
ut
hools. ...Witho
our public sc
in
ts
en
ud
st
stic
a more holi
education in
g
in
ch
oa
r
app
s these
pe to addres
ho
ot
nn
ca
fashion, we
rriers to
economic ba
d
an
,
al
ci
so
physical,
learning.
Special Education
SUPPORTING ALL
public schools are performing below grade level in reading and
mathematics as measured by statewide assessments. While most
of the public policy attention to these students has been focused
on the dramatically widening achievement gap between special
education students and their general education peers, teachers of
special needs students are often much more concerned about the
psychological effects that the toxic testing culture has had on these
students, and the ways in which students fundamental sense of
humanity and self-worth are increasingly undermined by our highly
pressurized and hypercompetitive public school culture.
In some HIDOE schools, as many as a third of our students have
Individualized Education Plans (IEPs). Special education teachers
are often overburdened with paperwork, lack adequate time to
complete IEP tasks, and lack sufficient funds for learning materials
and equipment. In a 2015 HSTA survey of special education
teachers in Hawaii, more than 70% of respondents reported they
were not given adequate time to plan for teaching, completing
OF OUR STUDENTS
CLASS SIZE IS A
SOCIAL JUSTICE ISSUE
Research conducted by the Institute of Education Sciences, within
the U.S. Department of Education, concludes that class size
reduction is one of only four evidence-based reforms that have
been proven to increase student achievement.[1] Experiments in
Tennessee, Wisconsin, and other states have demonstrated that
students in smaller classes have higher academic achievement,
receive better grades, and exhibit improved attendance. Moreover,
the students benefiting the most from smaller class sizes are from
poor and minority backgrounds, and they experience twice the
achievement gains of the average student when they are placed in
smaller classes. A study commissioned by the U.S. Department
of Education analyzed the achievement of students in 2,561
schools across the nation by their performance on the National
Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) exams. After
controlling for student background, the only objective factor that
correlated with higher test scores was class size.[2]
for
Class Size
and
Teaching
Class Size
in
Impact
on
Economic Security
VOCATIONAL
EDUCATION
[resulting in an] increasingly pronounced skills gap that plagues
American businesses as they struggle to find qualified workers and
dead ends for our students who rely on career preparation programs
as their ticket into the middle class.[9] When we coerce all students
to follow a narrow pathway to a four-year college without regard
to student preference and personal vision, we unjustly put them in
competition for fewer jobs, force them to incur unreasonable and
insurmountable debt, and contribute to the creation of a shortage
in Hawaiis workforce of individuals prepared for a majority of
socially and economically critical jobs.
Restoring Balance in
Educational System
the
Our keiki deserve, at the very least, school facilities that have
adequate lighting, clean air, comfortable heating and cooling,
properly-insulated windows that open and close, roofs that do
not leak, classrooms large enough to move around in (for projects
and group work), cafeterias, library media centers, functioning
plumbing in bathrooms, computer labs, science labs, auditoriums
with chairs, and fresh paint.[1] There is a growing body of work
linking educational achievement and student performance to the
quality of learning environment in which students and teachers
spend the majority of their waking hours.[2] Learning spaces have
become a critical social justice issue, and many researchers and
advocates in Hawaii and across the country are concerned about
the disproportionate effect of unhealthy public school facility
conditions on students from racial or ethnic minority groups and
from families having lower socio-economic status.[3]
air-conditioned
ng
and leisure duri
spaces for work
ect
days, yet we subj
increasingly hot
ns
eltering conditio
our children to sw
ss
e learning far le
that not only mak
tly,
more importan
likely but also,
the
ent threat to
pose an immin
hers
ents and teac
health of stud
Adults
alike.
seek
out
QUALITY FACILITIES
teachers have the least physical support because they have not been
receiving funding for facilities despite the fact that they are public
and not private charter schools. Although Hawaii law now allows
the Charter School Commission to request facilities funding as part
of its annual budget request to the director of finance, and it may
receive, expend, or allocate any funds provided by the facilities funding
request beginning with fiscal year 201415, the legislature has not
been providing funding for facilities costs.[20] There are multiple
public charter schools across the state that lack adequate building
space, who have to conduct class outdoors, on covered lanais, or in
makeshift structures.[21] Public charter schools are forced to spend
time and energy seeking funds for facilities from outside sources
instead of focusing on student learning. Some of these public charter
schools were established in remote, rural areas, and they exist because
the state has simply never constructed a public school to meet the
needs of the growing populations of the area.[22] The perpetuation
of these conditions is unconscionable our keiki deserve better.
SUPPORTING SMALL
Nearly one in six schools in Hawaii is rural, and these small, rural
schools serve over 8,500 students. Our students in small and rural
schools require more focused attention and policy-making because
the students in these schools are generally more vulnerable with fewer
social and economic supports. Despite median household incomes
close to the national median, persistent rural adult unemployment
remains a concern in Hawaii.[1] Rural household mobility in
Hawaii is very high, at almost 15%, and national analysis reveals
that children of all racial-ethnic groups are more likely to live in
poverty if they live in a rural place than if they live in either an
urban or suburban place.[2] In rural areas of Hawaii, over 40% of
families with children from ages 0-5 are below the poverty line, and
over 75% of single mother families with children from ages 0-5
are below the poverty line.[3] This is a critical issue for education
policy in Hawaii because research suggests that experiencing poverty
before age 18 is particularly harmful and has implications for brain
development as well as educational, occupational, health, and family
consequences.[4] While developing policies to reduce poverty rates
is the more holistic approach, because it can reduce overall societal
costs and improve outcomes for individuals and families, we can
begin by buffering our children in rural areas from the most brutal
effects of this poverty and lack of stability in multiple ways.[5]
Basic Staffing
Policymakers first need to fund rural schools in ways that are at
least sufficient to support basic educational goals. Our keiki in
less populated rural areas deserve quality school opportunities,
and to strengthen the educational institutions in rural areas, every
school should be adequately staffed to provide a solid educational
foundation with counselors, librarians, and elective teachers. To do
this, we will need to increase the differentials for rural schools and
decrease financial incentives designed to reward increases in school
size, as a wide body of research shows the small schools generally
yield better learning outcomes.[6]
do not have adequate funding under the WSF and that WSF does
not account adequately for diseconomies of scale associated with
small schools or for additional costs due to geographic isolation.[7]
Lack of funding is a major challenge, especially for small schools that
need to support essential personnel, and small schools and those
in geographically remote locations were especially lacking sufficient
funding to cover much more than a minimally operating program.[8]
Other factors that have cost implications for operating schools need
to be taken into account, such as the inability of necessarily small
schools to take advantage of the economies of scale associated with
operating larger schools. More isolated communities lack wider and
deeper alternative funding sources. Lack of opportunity is more
pronounced in rural areas, due to distance from services, and rural
communities and families in poverty have less access to technology.
The American Institutes for Research suggest that extra support
be provided for schools that are small or isolated.[9] This requires
a reconsideration of the weighting factors that make up the WSF
so that they more accurately account for the differential costs of
providing an equal opportunity for all students to achieve, regardless
of their individual needs or circumstances (such as geographic
location).[10]
Teacher Staffing
There are a number of issues connected to teacher staffing in
rural schools. Rural schools in Hawaii serve children with high
needs who require additional resources, special programs, and
expert teachers to be successful learners. Class size in Hawaiis
rural public schools is above average for rural schools nationally.
[11] There are geographic differences in resource prices,
especially with respect to staff, so that not all rural schools
are able to attract and retain qualified staff.[12] Rural schools
in Hawaii are generally hard-to-staff with highly qualified
teachers, tend to have high rates of teacher turnover and out-offield teaching assignments, and frequently use substitutes to fill
vacancies or assign out-of-field teachers, thereby failing to place a
qualified teacher in each classroom. While there is currently a bonus
for teaching at hard-to-staff schools, the authors of the AIR report
question whether it is large enough to fully adjust for this cost
factor.[13]
Using the Weighted Student Formula mechanism, small rural schools
are less likely to have counselors, librarians, and a wide choice of
electives. Research has established that certified school librarians
have a positive effect of literacy and achievement, particularly for
Student
d
Using the Weighte
small rural
Formula mechanism,
ve
ss likely to ha
schools are le
rians, and a wide
counselors, libra
an
tives. Fewer th
choice of elec
s on the Big
30 percent of school
rarians, and
Island have school lib
.
hools are urban
most of those sc
RETENTION AND
RECRUITMENT
Good education starts with good teachers, and our keiki in Hawaii
deserve the best. However, difficulties in the retention of existing
qualified teachers and recruitment of the next generation of qualified
teachers has reached crisis proportions, as the number of teachers
leaving their classrooms has been rising dramatically over the past five
years. The number of annual vacancies presents a serious problem
every year at least 10% of all teachers leave Hawaii schools. This
number is one of the highest in the country (the national average is
6.8%), and these high teacher attrition rates come at a high price.[1]
Richard Ingersoll, a University of Pennsylvania professor whose work
centers on teacher retention, estimated that filling all the vacancies
could have cost Hawaii up to $13 million in 2008. This means that
teachers from the mainland (more than half of new teachers who have
completed a Teacher Education Program have obtained their degrees
from out-of-state institutions) and alternative teaching pipelines, such
as Teach for America (TFA), who are less likely to stay in the classroom.
[5] Every year, hundreds of vacancies are filled with emergency hires and
substitute teachers who often lack the appropriate training to facilitate
student success in the classroom.[6] For the 2015-2016 school year,
there were 1,210 open positions statewide for teachers.Of those 1210,
584 were hired under the designation of emergency hire (a teacher
that has not yet complete a State Approved Teacher Education Program
(SATEP)[7]: this includes all entering Teach for America teachers (98
in 2013-2014), which is projected to decline as TFA, too, has seen a
large drop in enrollment over the past two years.[8]
The students who suffer the most attend schools that already have a
hard time filling their open positions because their schools are remote,
rural, or struggling with poverty, crime, alienation and disaffection.[9]
Beginning and inexperienced teachers are those most likely to leave,
creating a perpetual revolving door that has a profoundly negative
effect on student learning and school community building.[10] Of the
teachers who leave the DOE each year, 60% resign (30% retire and 10%
are terminated).[11] What we have is a retention crisis, says National
Commission on Teaching and Americas Future commission President
Tom Carroll. The greatest problem is retaining teachers because of
high levels of attrition. Over 40 percent of new teachers leave the
profession within the first five years.[12] Pouring more teachers into the
system will not solve the retention problem. As fast as [districts] are
moving teachers into schools, theyre leaving, Carroll says.[13] When
almost 70% of new teachers hired each year have no previous teaching
experience, and research shows that teachers only become fully effective
after four or five years of classroom experience, the implications of our
inability to retain qualified teachers for students, student learning and
school community-building become clear.[14]
Beyond Pay
Beginning to Grapple
with the Problem
While the policy makers in Hawaii will need to muster strong
support for public education to address these issues, there are clear
strategies to create maximal positive impact. The first set of strategies
should immediately create learning environments in which adults are
compensated properly for their work, where teachers are not blamed
for every manifestation of social problems, [and] where meaningless
tests given for the sake of accountability do not dominate the school
year.[25] The second set of strategies will require foresight and
commitment to social justice in public education, with policies designed
to increase the attractiveness and appeal of the teaching profession for
talented young people from our own communities with college debt
forgiveness programs, better salary schedules that reward commitment
to the profession, opportunities for professional advancement, and
marked improvements to the teaching environment.
ENDING
HIGH-STAKES
TESTING
ct
nt Succeeds A
de
tu
S
y
er
v
E
e
Under th
gned
replacement si
NCLB
e
th
),
(ESSA
ates
r of 2015, st
be
em
ec
D
in
w
into la
d
tain standardize
n
ai
m
to
ed
ir
u
will be req
siderable
be granted con
l
il
w
t
bu
g
in
test
ok
the tests will lo
t
ha
w
g
n
di
ar
eg
leeway r
plemented, and
im
be
l
il
w
ey
like, how th
from
data collected
h
c
hi
w
to
s
se
the u
t.
them will be pu
Damage
to
Public Education
Moment
of
Opportunity
Parents
must
be
allowed
refuse
or
opt-out
and
testing
standardized
children
their
demand
at is
receive an education th
and
focused on real learning
them
that truly prepares
for a better future.
to
The first five years in a childs life are essential to lay a foundation
for future learning. Children who have access to quality Early
Childhood Education (ECE) meaningfully enhance their social,
academic, and cognitive skill set.[1] Students who have access to
quality preschool are given a chance to hone those skills at the
most critical time, a process which supports their development
and learning in later elementary years. Longitudinal studies have
shown that high-quality programs not only improve academics,
Socio-Economic Impact of
Early Childhood Education
International research has demonstrated the well-designed (Early
Childhood Care and Education) ECCE policies present policy
makers with an opportunity to increase economic growth and at
the same time reduce inequality and that public investment in
EARLY CHILDHOOD
but also improve long-term personal outcomes for children and
reduce social costs from crime and welfare.[2] Students who have
had access to quality pre-kindergarten early childhood education
demonstrate improved school performance, better mastery of
language and math, longer attention spans, reduced special
education placement, and lower school dropout rates.[3] Socially
and emotionally, students are advantaged by having improved
interactions with peers, decreased behavioral concerns, and easier
adjustments to the high demands of later elementary school.[4]
Public Policy
This scholarship has begun to inform education policy at
multiple levels, and its implications have not escaped the Obama
administration: In states that make it a priority to educate our
youngest childrenstudies show students grow up more likely
to read and do math at grade level, graduate high school, hold a
job, [and] form more stable families of their own.[10] Currently,
the Hawaii pre-kindergarten pilot program, funded in Hawaii
through a federal grant, has a very limited reach, expanding to only
twenty sites in the states lowest performing and highest poverty
elementary schools. Act 109 of 2015 established the Executive
Office on Early Learning Public Pre-Kindergarten Program to
be administered by the Executive Office on Early Learning and
EDUCATION MATTERS
provided through Department of Education public schools and
public charter schools.[11] The next necessary step will be to
appropriate additional funds for the Executive Office on Early
Learning Public Pre-Kindergarten Program and mandate universal
preschool for all eligible children by the 2020-2021 school year.
We believe that preschool should serve children in the year prior
to the year of kindergarten eligibility, with priority extended to
underserved or at-risk children, extending to all children no
later than 2020-2021. Schools must hire qualified, properly
compensated teachers, have appropriate class sizes, and have access
to resources necessary for young children.[12]
Students
who
have
had
access
to
early
pre-kindergarten
te
tra
ons
dem
education
childhood
performance,
school
improved
ge and math,
better mastery of langua
reduced
spans,
attention
longer
cement, and
special education pla
rates.
lower school dropout
quality
Public school teachers in Hawaii have been under attack for the past
fifteen years, as policy makers, community leaders and politicians at all
levels have blamed teachers and their union for our states low standing
on national and international tests, and for the social and political ills
that result from the failure to educate citizens. Under the new Hawaii
Educator Effectiveness System, teacher ratings based in part on student
standardized test scores (shown to be an inaccurate and misleading
indicator of teacher effectiveness[1]), and a new top-down approach
to school administration[2] have demoralized teachers and undermined
schools as sites of collaborative learning and teaching. These new policies
are the result of our state leaderships response to No Child Left Behind,
which have resulted in years of narrowed curricula, teaching to the test
and schools increasingly emptied of the joy of learning. Teachers have
been watching with a great deal of distress and frustration as the sort
of engaging and relevant learning that attracted them to the profession
is increasingly eliminated from the public school experience.[3] Teacher
job satisfaction in Hawaii, as across the country, has continued to drop
precipitously over the course of the 21st century.[4] This dissatisfaction
has emerged in large part from the deprofessionalization of teaching in
public schools.
Teacher Agency
The construction of teacher identity, how teachers understand themselves,
is dependent upon their power and agency over their working conditions
and their capacity, within positive learning environments, to contribute
to student learning and engagement.[5] There has been no recent golden
age of public school teacher autonomy or empowerment in Hawaii, but
there is strong evidence that the landscape has shifted dramatically in the
past twenty years. In the 1980s, scholars of public education were already
arguing that the prevalent use of textbook and teachers guide packages
was one of the greatest factors responsible for the current ills affecting
teaching, with administratorstoo frequently insisting on the slavish
use of these prefabricated materials, which reflects a deprofessionalized
image of teaching.[6] Yet as recently as the 1990s, teachers studied in
all content areas and types of schools reported relatively high degrees
of personal control over both content and pedagogy, connecting a sense
of being efficacious in the classroom with satisfaction about their jobs.
[7] Prior to passage of No Child Left Behind, most teachers in public
schools said they had considerable influence over classroom decisions,
RESPECT, SUPPORT,
with more than half indicating they had considerable control over selecting
textbooks and other instructional materials and the content, topics, and
skills to be taught, and more than three-quarters indicating they were
firmly in control of selecting teaching techniques, evaluating and grading
students and determining the amount of homework to be assigned.[8]
The results of multiple studies indicated a significant relationship among
curriculum control policies and effects on teachers perceptions of their
own professional discretion and satisfaction.[9]
Effects
of
Education Deform
After the passage of No Child Left Behind, key popular educational reform
policies in Hawaii and across the country moved teaching away from
professionalism. These reforms included policies that evaluated teachers
based on students annual standardized test score gains (using the higly
questionable value-added method), fast-track teacher preparation and
licensure; and scripted, narrowed curricula. All three educational reforms
have found by scholars to lower the professional status of teaching. Valueadded policies are de-professionalizing in that they pressure teachers to
mechanically teach to tests while systematically devaluing the broader yet
essential elements of teaching. Additionally, fast-track teacher preparation
for
PROFESSIONALISM
and licensure programs de-professionalize teaching by the lack of focus
on pedagogical training, the small amount of time dedicated to preparing
teachers to teach, the assignment of inexperienced personnel to the most
challenging schools, and the itinerant nature of these teachers.[10] Scripted
and narrowed curriculum moves teaching away from professionalization
by preventing teachers from using their professional judgment to make
curricula decisions for student learning, with the consequent sacrifice of
higher-level learning, creativity, flexibility, and breadth of learning.[11]
This process serves to disconnect teachers from curriculum design work:
the way teacher knowledge has been embedded in practice has been
replaced by a disembedding of this knowledge, so that teacher planning
becomes disconnected from instructional practice in itself, a process that
happens before [and outside of] action.[12]
In studies that explored teacher identity and agency, teacher agency has
clearly been constrained in the new reform context, as teachers struggled
to remain openly vulnerable with their students, and to create trusting
learning environments in what they described as a more managerial
profession with increased accountability pressures.[13] Additional studies
examined the relationship between teacher autonomy and on-the-job
stress, work satisfaction, empowerment, and professionalism, and found
that as curriculum autonomy decreased, on-the-job stress increased, and
that as general teacher autonomy increased so did empowerment and
professionalism.[14] Also, as job satisfaction, perceived empowerment,
and professionalism increased, on-the-job stress decreased, and greater
job satisfaction was associated with a high degree of professionalism
and empowerment. These effects of professional autonomy did not
Historical Background:
Tale of Two Systems
The deep and dramatic divide between public and private education
in Hawaii originated in the relations of production shaped by sugar
and pineapple plantations from the late nineteenth century. American
sugar planters, most of whom were the sons of American Protestant
missionaries who had come to Hawaii to proselytize, benefitted both
from the Mahele and from a later 1872 non-judicial foreclosure
law, acquiring vast swathes of the most productive land by the late
nineteenth century.[2] Importing laborers largely from China, Japan,
Puerto Rico, and the Philippines, these white plantation owners used
race-based wage rates, language and cultural barriers, and differential
access to perquisites within the plantation system to divide the
plantation workers and successfully control them as sources of cheap
labor power.[3] Although Kamehameha II had established the first
public schools in Hawaii as part of his constitutional nation-state
building,[4] the American missionaries established the first private
school in Hawaii (Punahou) so that their children would not have
to go to school with Hawaiian children. [5] The illegal overthrow of
the Hawaiian kingdom by American forces in 1893 and subsequent
American occupation of Hawaii under pretext of annexation had
important implications for public education.[6]
Under American occupation, public schools became a more explicit
site of assimilation and cultural imperialism, especially as the children
of plantation workers came of school age and were required to attend
public school.[7] White plantation owners from Kohala and Pahala,
George C. Watt and James Campsie, reflected the dominant ideas of
the social elite: Every penny we spend educating these kids beyond
the sixth grade is wasted, complained Watt, to which Campsie
responded, Public education beyond the fourth grade is not only a
waste, it is a menace. We spend to educate them and they will destroy
us.[8] In 1910, when Governor Frear sought to minimally increase
the starvation budget of the public education system, the editorial
board of The Friend (a missionary publication) supported a tax to
raise money for schools and teachers salaries, arguing that Hawaii
is richer than the rest of the American Union in annual per capita
production of wealth. Yet it spends a niggardly* $2.07 per capita on
its public schools annually, against a mainland average of $3.66.[9]
The tax measure still failed. A 1920 federal survey of education in
Hawaii found, tellingly, that Buildings, maintenance, equipment,
* The original language of this quote has been retained with use of the word niggardly to emphasize historical preconceptions of missionaries and plantation owners at the time.
A CRITICAL NEED
FOR FUNDING
Lawmaking Reinforcing
the Status Quo
Evidence of the continuation and perpetuation of a racially segregated
education system is clearly written into the legislative record of
Hawaii, as elected representatives, all members of the social and
$26,661
$25,000
$25,061
$22,762
$22,600
$22,157
$18,361
$20,000
$15,000
$10,000
$5,000
$0
Washington,
D.C.
NewYork
City, NY
Boston, MA Pittsburgh,
PA
economic elite, most of whom send their own children to private school,
fail year after year to provide anything resembling adequate funding for
public education in Hawaii. Lawmakers in the twenty-first century have,
rather, dedicated their considerable powers to measures that make public
schools less democratic, less creative, and less joyful places of learning.
[18] The current underfunding of Hawaiis public schools is part of a
larger historical pattern of almost criminal neglect. When the cost of
living is factored in, Hawaii is last in the nation in the percent of state
and local expenditures for public education per student.[19] Hawaii also
ranks last in the nation with regards to capital improvement money per
student per year, with the Hawaii state legislature allocating about $300
per pupil whereas the mainland averages $1,200 to $1,500.[20] Hawaii
also currently ranks last in the nation when it comes to teacher pay adjusted
for cost of living. The average teacher salary in Hawaii, adjusted for cost
of living, is $32,312. [21]
Cincinnati,
OH
Detroit, MI
high costs of living are averaged with school districts with rural districts
with lower costs of living in statewide aggregate analysis. Illinois, which
has a similar cost per pupil as Hawaii, has 863 school districts, with one
expensive school district: Chicago.[23] When comparing school districts
of similar size, Hawaii is 227 on the list, even without adjusting for cost
of living. Comparisons of spending per pupil in Americas largest school
districts yield interesting results.[24]
Hawaiis major private schools average $15,173 in per pupil spending.
When Catholic schools, which are subsidized by the Roman Catholic
Diocese, are removed from the aggregate, per pupil spending in Hawaii
private schools reaches nearly $19,173 dollars per student. [25] This
figure does not, however, include endowment funds that increase the actual
amount spent per pupil. As Punahou President Jim Scott revealed in 2014,
The real cost of our education per student is $26,000. The difference
is met through our endowment now at $235 million and fundraising $12 million or $15 million a year. Every tuition-paying parent is
being subsidized by fundraising and by the Punahou endowment. [26]
What Is To Be Done?
While funding provides one lens useful in examining how social hierarchy
is reproduced by education in Hawaii, it is a critical and previously
inadequately examined area of analysis. And the possible remedies for the
inequities resulting from underfunding are limited only by the imagination
and political will, not of legislators but of the citizens of Hawaii. This is
the education of our children, and if we are not willing to hold ourselves
accountable, no one will.
ENDNOTES
INTRODUCTION SCHOOLS OUR KEIKI DESERVE
[1] Jones, Denisha. Another Casualty in the Fight to Save Public Education: An
Interview with Barbara Madeloni. EmPower Magazine. EmPower, 13 June 2012.
Web. 14 Jan. 2016.
WHOLE CHILD EDUCATION
[1] ARCH || State DOE Accountability || Superintendents Annual Report ||
2014. ARCH || State DOE Accountability || Superintendents Annual Report
|| 2014. Web. 07 Jan. 2016.
Akelheilm, Karen. Does Class Size Matter? Science Direct. Elsevier Ltd, June
2002. Web. 16 Jan. 2016.
[3] Boyd-Zaharias, J., & Pate-Bain, H. 2000. Early and new findings from
Tennessees Project STAR. The CEIC Review, 9(2), 4.
[4] Blatchford, P., Bassett, P. & Brown, P. Examining the effect of class size on
classroom engagement and teacher - pupil interaction: Differences in relation
to pupil prior attainment and primary vs. secondary schools, Report of the
Department of Psychology and Human Development, University of London, 1
April 2011.
[4] Iolani School: Sullivan Center. Iolani School: Sullivan Center. Web. 07 Jan.
2016.
[5] Evertson, C. M., & Randolph, C. H. 1989. Teaching Practices and Class
Size: A New Look at an Old Issue. Peabody Journal of Education, 67(1), 85105. Graue, E., Rauscher, E., & Sherfinski, M. (2008). Using Multiple Data
Sources to Understand the Synergy of Class Size Reduction & Classroom Practice
in Wisconsin. Paper to American Educational Research Association Annual
Meeting, New York. Dee, T., West, M. (2011) The non-cognitive returns to class
size. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis. 33-1:23-46. Boyd-Zaharias, J., &
Pate-Bain, H. 2000. Early and new findings from Tennessees Project STAR. The
CEIC Review, 9(2), 4.
[6] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. School Connectedness: Strategies
for Increasing Protective Factors Among Youth. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services; 2009.
[6] The Power of the Indigenous: Native Success in Education and in Life.Pacific
Rim International Conference on Disability and Diversity. Web. 07 Jan. 2016.
VOCATIONAL EDUCATION
[2] Azzam, Amy M. Why Creativity Now? A Conversation with Sir Ken
Robinson. Educational Leadership: Teaching for the 21st Century. ASCD. Web.
07 Jan. 2016. Moke, Heather. Motivating Students to Learn. Policy Priorities:
Student Engagement. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Web. 07 Jan. 2016.
[3] Junior School (K - 8). Punahou School:. Punahou. Web. 07 Jan. 2016.
[1] Daggett, Willard. The Future of Career and Technical Education. ERIC, Mar.
2003. Web. 17 Jan. 2016.
[2] Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).
Ed.gov, 10 Dec. 2015. Web. 17 Jan. 2016.
[3] The Goals of Education. Economic Policy Institute. EPI.org, 4 Dec. 2006.
Web. 17 Jan. 2016.
[4] Occupational Employment Projections to 2022. Monthly Labor
Review(2013): 1-44. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Bls.gov, Dec. 2013. Web. 17
Jan. 2016.
[5] Hawaii Labor Market Dynamics. Hawaii Workforce Infonet (2015): 14.
Research and Statistics Office Department of Labor & Industrial Relations, State
of Hawaii. Hiwi.org, Sept. 2015. Web. 17 Sept. 2016.
[6] NEAs Degrees Not Debt: An Organizers Guide to Kick Student Debt (2014):
1-18. National Education Association. Neo.org, June 2014. Web. 17 Jan. 2016.
[7] The Shocking Truth About The Skills Gap (2015): 3. Career Builder.
Careerbuildercommunications.org, Dec. 2014. Web. 17 Jan. 2016.
[8] LaFrance, Adrienne. More People Are Underemployed in Hawaii Than Are
Jobless. Civil Beat News. Civilbeat.org, 26 Mar. 2014. Web. 17 Jan. 2016.
[9] Making Career Preparation Work for Students (2014): 2. Council of Chief
State School Officers. Ccsso.org, Nov. 2014. Web. 17 Jan. 2016.
[10] Michael Barros: Hawaiis Career and Technical Education Programs.
Telephone interview. 19 Dec. 2015.
[11] Making Career Preparation Work for Students (2014): 1-28. Council of
Chief State School Officers. Ccsso.org, Nov. 2014. Web. 17 Jan. 2016.
[12] Programs of Study. University of Hawaii Community College. University
of Hawaii, 7 Jan. 2016. Web. 17 Jan. 2016.
[13] The Shocking Truth About The Skills Gap (2015): 6-7. Career Builder.
Careerbuildercommunications.org, Dec. 2014. Web. 17 Jan. 2016.
QUALITY FACILITIES
[1] Schneider, Mark. Do School Facilities Affect Academic Outcomes? National
Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities. National Institute of Building Sciences,
Nov. 2002. Web. 14 Jan. 2016. Uline, Cynthia, and Megan Tschannen?Moran.
The Walls Speak: The Interplay of Quality Facilities, School Climate, and Student
[1] Johnson, Jerry, Daniel Showalter, and Robert Klein. The Facts About Rural
Education in the 50 States. Why Rural Matters 2013-14 (May 2014): 55. Rural.
edu. Rural School and Community Trust, May 2014. Web. 15 Jan. 2016.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Jensen, Eric. How Poverty Affects Behavior and Academic Performance.ASCD.
org. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, n.d. Web. 15 Jan.
2016.
[5] Biddle, Bruce J. The Unacknowledged Disaster: Youth Poverty and Educational
Failure in America. Boston: Sense, 2014. Print.
[6] Iatarola, Patrice, Amy Ellen Schwartz, Leanne Steifel, and Colin Chellman.
Small Schools, Large Districts: Small-School Reform and New York City Students.
TCRecord.com. Teachers College Record, 1 Dec. 2008. Web. 15 Jan. 2016.
[7] Levins, Jesse, Jay Chambers, Diane Epstein, Nick Mills, Mahala Archer, Antonia
Wong, and Kevin Lane. Evaluation of Hawaiis Weighted Student Formula, p. 144.
Rep. American Institutes for Research, June 2013. Web. 15 Jan. 2016.
[7] Woolner, Pamela, and Elaine Hall. Noise in Schools: A Holistic Approach
to the Issue. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.
Molecular Diversity Preservation International (MDPI), 23 Aug. 2010. Web. 14
Jan. 2016.
[8] Mott, Michael, Daniel Robinson, Ashley Walden, Jodie Burnett, and Angela
Rutherford. Illuminating the Effects of Dynamic Lighting on Student Learning.
Sage Publishing Company, Sept. 2011. Web. 14 Jan. 2016.
[11] Johnson, Jerry, Daniel Showalter, and Robert Klein. The Facts About Rural
Education in the 50 States. Why Rural Matters 2013-14 (May 2014): 55. Rural.
edu. Rural School and Community Trust, May 2014. Web. 15 Jan. 2016.
[9] Coco, Kim. Entering Another Cycle of Neglect for School Maintenance.
Civilbeat.com. Civil Beat, 19 Jan. 2015. Web. 14 Jan. 2016.
[12] Levins, Jesse, Jay Chambers, Diane Epstein, Nick Mills, Mahala Archer, Antonia
Wong, and Kevin Lane. Evaluation of Hawaiis Weighted Student Formula, p. 154.
Rep. American Institutes for Research, June 2013. Web. 15 Jan. 2016.
[13] Ibid.
[14] School Library Impact Studies Project. School Library & Information
Technologies Graduate Program, 1 Dec. 2013. Web. 16 Jan. 2016.
[15] Poverty Map. Poverty USA: A CCRD Initiative. PovertyUSA.org, 1 Dec.
2015. Web. 16 Jan. 2016.
[12] Coco, Kim. Entering Another Cycle of Neglect for School Maintenance Civil Beat News. Civilbeat.com. Civil Beat, 19 Jan. 2015. Web. 14 Jan. 2016.
[13] Bussewitz, Kathy. With No ACs And Record High Temps, Hawaii Schools
Consider Heat Days Huffingtonpost.com. Huffington Post, 12 Aug. 2015. Web.
15 Jan. 2016.
[17] Johnson, Jerry, Daniel Showalter, and Robert Klein. The Facts About Rural
Education in the 50 States. Why Rural Matters 2013-14 (May 2014): 1-94. Rural.
edu. Rural School and Community Trust, May 2014. Web. 15 Jan. 2016.
[14] Blair, Allyson. DOE Asks for $534 Million for Schools Repairs, Heat
Abatement. HNN.com. Hawaii News Now, 23 Oct. 2015. Web. 14 Jan. 2016.
[18] Ibid.
[15] Kerr, Keoki, and Ben Gutierrez. No Injuries as Roof Collapses at Farrington
High. HNN.com. Hawaii News Now, 24 Nov. 2012. Web. 15 Jan. 2016.
[11] Table XIII. Employment Report School Year 2013-2014. Rep. Hawaii
Department of Education, 2015. Web. 18 Jan. 2016.
[3] Magnuson, Katherine A., Christopher Ruhm, and Jane Waldfogel. The
Persistence of Preschool Effects: Do Subsequent Classroom Experiences Matter?
Early Childhood Research Quarterly 22.1 (2007): 18-38. Web.
[13] Ibid.
[14] Table VIII. Employment Report School Year 2013-2014. Rep. Hawaii
Department of Education, 2015. Web. 18 Jan. 2016.
[15] Allegreto, Sylvia. Teacher Pay Penalty. Economic Policy Institute. Epi.org, 20
Nov. 2014. Web. 18 Jan. 2016.
[16] Murakami, Kery. Living Hawaii: Why Is the Price of Paradise So High?
Civil Beat News. Civilbeat.com, 04 Sept. 2013. Web. 18 Jan. 2016.
[17] Wong, Alia. How Come So Many Teachers Bail on Hawaiis Public Schools?
Civil Beat News. Civilbeat.com, 04 Sept. 2013. Web. 18 Jan. 2016.
[18] Student Debt and the Class of 2014. Student Debt (2015): 1-35. Institute
for College Access and Success. Ticas.org, Oct. 2015. Web. 18 Jan. 2016. Table
VI. Employment Report School Year 2013-2014. Rep. Hawaii Department of
Education, 2015. Web. 18 Jan. 2016.
[19] Ibid.
[20] Table 2. Percentage of Public School Districts That Had Salary Schedules for
Teachers and among Those That Had Salary Schedules, the Average Yearly Teacher
Base Salary, by Various Levels of Degrees and Experience and State: 200708.
School and Staffing Survey (SASS). National Center for Education Statistics, Web.
18 Jan. 2016.
[7] The Economics of Early Childhood Investments. Rep. White House, Dec.
2014. Web. 10 Jan. 2016.
[21] Westervelt, Eric. Where Have All The Teachers Gone? NPR. NPR, 4 Mar.
2015. Web. 18 Jan. 2016.
[9] Clothier, Steffanie, and Julie Poppe. New Research: Early Education as
Economic Investment. National Conference for State Legislatures. Ncsl.gov, Dec.
2005. Web. 18 Jan. 2016.
[22] Walker, Tim. NEA Survey: Nearly Half Of Teachers Consider Leaving
Profession Due to Standardized Testing. NEA Today. Nea.org, 02 Nov. 2014.
Web. 18 Jan. 2016.
[8] Clothier, Steffanie, and Julie Poppe. New Research: Early Education as
Economic Investment. National Conference for State Legislatures. Ncsl.gov, Dec.
2005. Web. 18 Jan. 2016.
[10] Remarks by the President in the State of the Union Address. The White
House. The White House. Web. 10 Jan. 2016.
[23] Kumashiro, Kevin K. Bad Teacher!: How Blaming Teachers Distorts the Bigger
Picture. New York: Teachers College, Columbia U, 2012. Print.
[24] Newton, Steven. Where Have All the Teachers Gone? The Huffington Post.
TheHuffingtonPost.com, 29 Sept. 2015. Web. 18 Jan. 2016.
[12] Why Teacher Quality Matters and How We Can Improve It. Rep. National
Association for the Education of Young Children. Web. 10 Jan. 2016.
[25] Ibid.
[13] Mendoza, Jim. Preschool Funding at Risk for Low-income Families. Hawaii
News Now. Hnn.com, 13 Apr. 2015. Web. 18 Jan. 2016.
[14] Wong, Alia. Many Families Sacrifice to Put Kids in Private Schools. Living
Hawaii. Civilbeat.com, 17 Mar. 2014. Web. 18 Jan. 2016.
[1] Walker, Tim. NEA Survey: Nearly Half Of Teachers Consider Leaving
Profession Due to Standardized Testing - NEA Today. NEA Today. NEA, 02 Nov.
2014. Web. 14 Jan. 2016.
[2] Hagopian, Jesse. Arne Duncan. Testocracy Tsar. Educational Alchemist.
Corporate Lackey. The Progressive, 01 Jan. 2016. Web. 14 Jan. 2016.
[3] Polikoff, M. S., and A. C. Porter. Instructional Alignment as a Measure of
Teaching Quality. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis 36.4 (2014): 399416. Web.
[4] Strauss, Valerie. Statisticians Slam Popular Teacher Evaluation Method.
Washington Post. The Washington Post, 13 Apr. 2014. Web. 14 Jan. 2016.
[5] Strauss, Valerie. What the New Common Core Tests Are - and Arent.
Washington Post. The Washington Post, 1 Jan. 2015. Web. 14 Jan. 2016.
Rasmussen, Steven. The Smarter Balanced Common Core Mathematics Tests Are
Fatally Flawed and Should Not Be Used: An In-Depth Critique of the Smarter
Balanced
Tests for Mathematics. SR Education Associates. Web. 14 Jan. 2016.
[6] Strive HI System Index. Hawaii State Department of Education. Web. 14
Jan. 2016.
[7] Ravitch, Diane. (2013). Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization
Movement and the Danger to Americas Public Schools. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION MATTERS
[1] Reynolds, A., Temple, J., & Ou, S. (2010). Impacts and implications of the
child- parent center preschool program. In A. Reynolds, A. Rolnick, M. Englund &
J. Temple (Eds.), Childhood Programs and Practices in the First Decade of Life: A
Human Capital Integration (pp. 168-186). New York, NY: Cambridge University
Press.
[5] Hughes, Judith. The Demise of the English Standard School System in
Hawaii.Hawaiian Journal of History27 (1993): 63-90. Print.
[6] Sai, David Keanu.Ua Mau Ke Ea - Sovereignty Endures: An Overview of the
Political and Legal History of the Hawaiian Islands. Honolulu: Puaa Foundation,
2011. Print. Perkins, Umi. Moolelo Refigured: Developing a New Hawaiian
History Textbook: Umi Perkins at TEDxManoa.Ted Talks. YouTube, 24 Oct.
2012. Web. 22 Jan. 2016.
Perkins, Umi. Moolelo Refigured: Developing a New Hawaiian History Textbook:
Umi Perkins at TEDxManoa.Ted Talks. YouTube, 24 Oct. 2012. Web. 22 Jan.
2016.
[7] This narrative challenges the celebratory work of earlier progressive scholars
like Francine Duplexis Gray, who argued in her 1972 Sugar-Coated Fortress
that Twelve years after statehood (while the economic power and profit margins
of the Big Five remained undiluted), Hawaii could be described as having the
greatest racial equality, the highest union wages, the most efficient welfare system,
the highest voter participation, and the robust liberal legislature of any state in
the Union (Forbes, Robert. The Education of a Territory: Origins of Hawaiian
Statehood. Origins of Hawaiian Statehood. Academia.edu, Dec. 2010. Web. 22
Jan. 2016). Wist, Benjamin. A Century of Public Education in Hawaii, October
15, 1840-October 15, 1940. The Hawaii Educational Review. SearchWorks,
2000. Web. 22 Jan. 2016.
[8] Dotts, Cecil K., and Mildred Sikkema. Challenging the Status Quo: Public
Education in Hawaii, 1840-1980. Honolulu: Hawaii Education Association,
1994 (45). Print.
[9] Ibid, 55.
[10] Ibid, 73.
[11] Ibid.
[12] Ibid, 104.
[13] Hughes, Judith. The Demise of the English Standard School System in
Hawaii.Hawaiian Journal of History27 (1993): 67. Print.
[14] Bayer, Ann Shea.Going Against the Grain: When Professionals in Hawai?i
Choose Public Schools Instead of Private Schools. Honolulu: U of Hawai?i, 2009.
Print.
[15] Dotts, Cecil K., and Mildred Sikkema.Challenging the Status Quo: Public
Education in Hawaii, 1840-1980. Honolulu: Hawaii Education Association,
1994 (116). Print.
[16] Dotts, Cecil K., and Mildred Sikkema.Challenging the Status Quo: Public
Education in Hawaii, 1840-1980. Honolulu: Hawaii Education Association,
1994. Print.
[17]
Reinecke, John. One-Sixth Of Hawaii Students Attend Private
Schools.Honolulu Record. CLEAR.org, Dec. 2014. Web. 23 Jan. 2016.
[18] Keany, Michael, and Tiffany Hill. The Death of Public School: Ten Years
Later. Honolulu Magazine. Honolulumagazine.com, 2 May 2011. Web. 22 Jan.
2016.
[20] Udom, Udoh Elijah. What Makes Students Tick?: Unlocking the Passion for
Learning. Bloomington: Balboa, 2014. Print.
[21] Villarreal, Pamela. How Much Are Teachers Paid: Nationwide Analysis of
Teacher Pay?Highlights from Education at a Glance (2014). National Center for
Policy Analysis, Sept. 2014. Web. 22 Feb. 2016.
[2] Dotts, Cecil K., and Mildred Sikkema. Challenging the Status Quo: Public
Education in Hawaii, 1840-1980. Honolulu: Hawaii Education Association,
1994. Print.
[3] Kent, Noel J.Hawaii Islands Under the Influence. Honolulu: U of Hawaii,
1993. Print.
[4] Odgers, George Allen. Educational Legislation in Hawaii, 1845-1892.
Honolulu: U of Hawaii, 1932. Print.
CONTRIBUTORS
SPEAKERS BUREAU
Debbie Anderson
Waiakea Intermediate School(Hilo)
Mireille Ellsworth
Waiakea High School (Hilo)
Mitzie Higa
Ewa Makai Middle School (Central)
Andy Jones
POLICY ADVISOR
Kris Coffield
DESIGN EDITOR
Chris Mikesell