Letters and Testimony
From Save Our Schools Hawaii
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Save Our Schools Hawaii April 5, 2010
We are dismayed by your stunning lack of progress on the Furlough Friday crisis. The children of Hawai'i have so far endured 13 Furlough Fridays, and nothing has been accomplished to bring this situation to an end or prevent it from continuing next year. We are members of Save Our Schools Hawaii, a grassroots group formed at the onset of this crisis in an effort to rally a quick end to Furlough Fridays. We are infuriated that you are denying children valuable school days. Concerned citizens statewide are outraged by your blatant neglect, reckless behavior and, well, school yard bully tactics. As governor, it is your constitutional obligation to provide an adequate public education system for the 170,000 public school students of Hawai'i. A school year with only 163 days is clearly inadequate by any standard in the United States. The longer this goes on, the larger your breach of constitutional duty. We are alarmed that you have NEVER attended any negotiations aimed at ending Furlough Fridays. Previous Hawai'i governors have attended critical negotiations. We hope you realize that you risk being remembered as the governor who did not care about schoolchildren. Surely, that is not the legacy you're hoping for. So, please, for the sake of Hawai'i's future — and your own — make it your mission to end Furlough Fridays now. S.O.S. Hawaii demands that you do the RIGHT THING: 1.) Be PRESENT yourself (not by proxy) in discussions with the HSTA, BOE and DOE and their negotiators. 2.) PERSONALLY commit to resolving the difference between your proposal and that of the HSTA/DOE/BOE by the April 12 legislative deadline. Calls for reform of the Department of Education (DOE) are matters of policy agenda, which should never be confused with the inalienable right of all keiki to A FULL SCHOOL YEAR. Kids have the right to go to school, whether or not reforms are called for. Keeping schools OPEN must be your first priority, and your unhappiness with the DOE is no excuse for inaction. Until you do your constitutional duty to RESTORE THE FULL SCHOOL YEAR, we do NOT want to hear one more word about your ideas for (1.) allowing the governor to appoint the superintendent of schools; (2.) abolishing the Board of Education; or (3.) defining which of the Department of Education Employees are essential. You have had seven long years to reform the DOE. It is unconscionable that you are now, in the dying days of your governorship, trying to tie the resolution pertaining to Furlough Fridays to your own policy agenda. We find it baffling that with a state budget of more than $10 billion, you are bickering over less than 0.3 percent to restore Furlough Fridays. Please, Gov. Lingle, stop trying to balance the budget on the backs of schoolchildren. It is time to do the RIGHT THING. We, the members of S.O.S. Hawai'i and citizens across the Islands want you to know that the education of our children is by far more important than our taxes or special funds. Respected economists say cuts to essential services (education, health, social services) will result in greater long-term economic damage than use of special funds or raising taxes. Your present course is not only inhumane, but also does not make for smart economic policy. You said on the TV news that you want to "end the Furlough Fridays at the lowest possible price." This is clearly the wrong priority. We can NOT sacrifice the education of our children attending public schools to avoid higher taxes. Every taxpaying adult in Hawai'i relies on the public school system as it produces graduates who go on to hold vital jobs and an array of leadership positions critical for charting Hawaii's future. Surely, you know that when you short-change our public schools, you are short-changing Hawaii's future. There have been other governors who have used public schools as political tools, these were all southern governors who used public schools to thwart desegregation: Orval Faubus of Arkansas, Ross Barnett of Mississippi, James Lindsay Almond of Virginia, and George Wallace of Alabama. They were more than willing to close schools to advance their political agenda. Is this the company that Lingle wants to keep? Gov. Lingle: STOP short-changing our state's future, STOP PICKING ON OUR KIDS! Sincerely, Marguerite Higa Save Our Schools Hawaii S.O.S. Hawaii stands with Hawaii's public and charter school children and teachers. We are united behind one promise: we will do all we can to make sure Hawaii's keiki and teachers are valued, prioritized, and that education is sustainably funded. We believe that investing in education today supports all of Hawai'i for tomorrow. |
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Terri LeCoursiere Zucchero
As a health care provider and person deeply committed to improving the health of Hawaii's homeless, I would like to bring to your attention the detrimental impact on the health and well-being of homeless children due to lost school days. Specifically, schools are a safe haven for children who are homeless (and other vulnerable children as well) whose living conditions are inadequate, unsafe, and unhealthy. Whether a child is residing in a shelter, car, tent on the beach, or episodically staying in crowded homes with extended family, their life is unstable and chaotic. It is well known that homeless children have more health problems (acute and chronic illness, mental illness, injuries, fatigue, and hunger), developmental delays, and learning disabilities compared to housed children. They suffer in a variety of ways psychologically, socially, and academically due to negative exposures in their environments that are beyond their control. The literature is compelling about the connection between education and health. Simply stated, more education leads to healthier outcomes. In addition to an education, children who are homeless (sheltered or unsheltered, visible or "hidden") and attending school, generally receive two meals, shelter from adverse weather conditions, and access to the following --- health aides or school nurses, counselors, clean water and bathroom facilities, books, playground equipment and toys, socialization, and support and kindness from teachers and school staff. At a bare minimum, homeless children who are in school at least get a chance for a better day than they might otherwise have. For a homeless child that is not allowed to attend school due to the furlough, seventeen days equals 34 lost meals. Seventeen days could potentially amount to over 100 hours of exposure to unsafe, unhealthy, and inappropriate conditions . Multiply these numbers by the total number of students who are homeless across the state and the results are appalling. Seventeen days without school is unacceptable for homeless children because school = health. What are the state and local agencies offering homeless and other vulnerable children on the furlough days? What efforts are going on in the community to address these serious issues affecting the health of children in our state? Thank you for your attention to this important matter. I look forward to your response, and if possible, discussing the situation with you or your staff. Sincerely, |
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Marguerite Butler Higa
Thank you very much for this opportunity for input on the current furloughs for public education. I am a product of Hawaii's public education system, a proud graduate of Mililani High School (1985), and I am now an assistant professor in the Zoology Department at UH Manoa. I would like to tell you my story. 1) We are already behind. I graduated third in my class at Mililani High School. I left for college a semester early, having run out of classes to take by senior year. At Rennselear Polytechnic University, I went straight to the bottom of my class. For my mainland peers, freshman year was review. For myself and my husband (also MHS grad), everything we learned in high school was covered on the first day. We lacked not only the content, but also the study skills to excel in college. We fought our way back up, but it was a huge struggle. This was back in 1985, before the problems of today. We cannot afford to lose any days of instruction. 2) Hawaii kids can catch up and succeed. After catching up during my BS, I was fortunate to receive my Ph.D. at a prestigious university, earn postdoctoral fellowships and land jobs in academia. I am now a professor at UH, and I teach Hawaii's youth. My students are seniors in college, about 50% from Hawaii and 50% from the mainland. Our local kids are just as bright and hard-working as kids anywhere. They are really smart and creative, but yet, the one word that characterizes them as a group is "insecure". They somehow get the message that they are not as good, not as well-prepared as people from the mainland. It takes me all semester to get them to relax, perform at their best, to unleash their creativity, and to believe that they can do it. They CAN do it. I believe that by the time the are in high school, they know that school is too easy. They know that they have not been challenged to their full potential, pushed creatively, expected to perform at a professional level. This leads to insecurity. And now this. Saving money by cutting school days sends a very clear message to the youth of Hawaii: YOU ARE NOT IMPORTANT. We can no longer afford this tremendous waste of human capital, creativity, and productivity. We need to build up the next generation so that they can lead to their fullest potential. 3) School is not like work, learning cannot simply be delayed. I am now a proud mom of a 3rd grader at Noelani Elementary School. I see wonderful things happening in the classrooms there. But I am deeply worried about school being shortened to 4 or fewer days per week for the rest of the school year. Many people may not appreciate that learning is hard work. But as an educator, I understand that students learn new things every day. It is not like work, which is repetitive. They must continually master new material, which increases in difficulty. They need structured teaching, repetition, and creative approaches from different angles if they are to master new concepts. The harm will be greatest to young children, who have developing brains. There are windows of opportunity in the development of a child's brain at which time it is easiest to learn how to read, solve mathematical problems, and other basic life tasks. Learning is a developmental process. Stunting the learning of children for two years can never be made up. Their learning potential will be harmed forever. 4) Hawaii's Government is completely opaque. I returned to Hawaii after being away for 20 years, and I can honestly say that I do not understand how anything works, despite the fact that I am a local girl. The governor is not concerned with education. The DOE is accountable to whom? Who is representing the children and their educational needs in all of this? Who has the right to rob the children of their education? There is tremendous energy in the all of the concerned parents, friends and ohana. But WHAT DO WE DO? Please do not let this opportunity go by. Be the leaders we need. Create the educational system that our keiki so richly deserve. Do not furlough the keiki. RESTORE FUNDING FOR EDUCATION. We will support you. Thank you very much for your time and efforts. Marguerite Butler Higa |
