Establishment of what were called English Standard schools in the Territory of Hawai'i in the 1920s began as a racist attempt to segregate Caucasian children from pidgin-speaking Asian children in the public schools. But in the long run, the schools broke down language barriers between races and offered new opportunities for further education to those enrolled.Pressure for school segregation was coming from whites new to the Islands who complained about the quality of English spoken in the public schools but couldn't afford the private schools, which catered to the wealthier families. In response, the Department of Public Instruction established schools based on English fluency, not race. But fluency fell along racial lines.
Lincoln School — the first English Standard grammar school — opened in 1924, according to "Hawai'i Pono," Lawrence H. Fuchs' social history of the Islands. Throughout the next 15 years, several others opened. And in 1930, Roosevelt became the first English Standard high school.
Only children who could pass an examination were allowed entry, and the schools existed as both segregator and steppingstone.
According to Fuchs, many ardent Democrats saw the English Standard system as "evil." But when the system was abandoned in 1947, there were more Japanese than white children in these schools.
