Dual school system reflects ethnic, class differences
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By Majid Tehranian
In 1994, Gov. Ben Cayetano told the University of Hawai'i student newspaper that, "as governor, I will cut anything and everything from the state budget in order to provide sufficient funds for education."
In 2001, Hawai'i teachers at primary, secondary and tertiary levels are poised to go on strike to achieve a level of salary increase barely competitive with their Mainland counterparts.
Politicians are notoriously fickle in their campaign promises. That is not the issue. What is at stake for the people of Hawai'i? That is the issue.
Historically in the United States, education has been the channel of upward mobility for individuals and communities. But in Hawai'i, education has served historically as a mechanism for prolonging a colonial and post-colonial social stratification system.
Here in Hawai'i, we have a dual educational system commensurate with the Island class and ethnic stratification. Thirty-six percent of Hawai'i's primary and secondary students attend private schools, the highest percentage in the United States.
The other 64 percent go to public schools. Because of the heavy concentration of land in a few hands, public education in Hawai'i is not financed by real estate taxes as it is on the Mainland. The education budget comes out of income taxes and general funds. Consequently, public education is starved for funds while private education thrives.
The chasm between the standards of the two systems is thus wide and widening.
One of the consequences of this educational system is that the Hawai'i social and political elite has little interest in the public education system.
The elite send their children to Punahou, 'Iolani and other private schools and then on to Mainland universities. Given their high levels of income, they can afford that. The rest of the population has no choice but to send their children to public schools that cry for resources. Because they value their children's education, some middle-class families make the sacrifices necessary to provide them private educations.
Generally, however, the educational system reproduces and reinforces the social system.
That is not the end of the story, however. We know from the history of economic development that excellence in education goes hand in hand with rapid scientific, technological and economic development.
As a small state with a small population base, situated in the middle of the Pacific, Hawai'i may not be able to accomplish the same feat of the "Silicon Valleys" that have grown up around great Mainland educational centers.
But Hawai'i has other comparative advantages, including good tempers (the aloha spirit) and good temperatures, a strategic location and a cultural and educational bridge between Asia and North America. Our political leaders often pay lip service to the need in Hawai'i to move toward economic diversification and away from reliance on a single and most vulnerable source of income, namely tourism.
But little is being done to fulfill this objective.
The Hawaiian power elite does not have a vital interest in improving the educational system, which is the key to economic diversification. Unlike the major industrial states on the Mainland, where business interests have a vital interest in supporting educational excellence, the tourist industry in Hawai'i seems to be content with the low levels of education and skill that the current public system supplies.
Low standards in public education do not support high tech industries; low salaries drive the best talents away from Hawai'i to the Mainland; and low demand for higher levels of education and skill keep the system reproducing itself.
How can we break through this vicious circle?
Hawai'i has a comparative advantage in many fields, including oceanography, Asia-Pacific studies, health industries, global and peace studies, and the new multimedia industries, from television serials to feature films, video documentaries and the exploding tele-educational materials.
For example, a state investment in a first-class school of communications fully equipped with the latest technological facilities can create a critical mass of producers, directors, scriptwriters, educational technologists, software engineers and other human resources in the state.
That in turn will sooner or later turn Hawai'i into a haven for an environmentally soft and economically lucrative industry. But in the absence of such a school and other educational resources needed for such an industry, California, Washington and British Columbia look far more attractive than Hawai'i.
The educational stagnation cannot come to an end until its governance is changed. So long as the governor appoints the Board of Regents, and the board appoints the UH president, the University of Hawai'i will not enjoy real autonomy.
On the contrary, the university will continue to be viewed as a source of contracts rather than as an educational and scientific institution capable of achieving the distinction that it deserves. There are many excellent teachers who staff the Hawai'i public educational system from elementary to tertiary levels, but that is in spite of the current system and not because of it.
Love of Hawai'i has drawn many talented people to these Islands and keeps them here. But under economic duress, many others are leaving.
The impasse between the state and teachers is too important to be left to politicians and teachers alone. The people of Hawai'i have a great stake in the outcome. Nothing less than the economic future of our state is at stake here.
Majid Tehranian is a professor at UH-Manoa and director of the Toda Institute for Global Peace and Policy.
