Public schools have taken hard knocks in recent months, with upheaval over budgeting and disappointing national test scores, so it's doubly delightful to celebrate some stellar news.

Doubly, because two high school science teachers have won Milken National Educator Awards, the nation's top teaching honor. Both were honored in emotional surprise assemblies at their campuses Wednesday.

The awardees — Bebi Davis, a Farrington High School physics and chemistry teacher, and Waipahu High School's Carl Matsumoto, who teaches science and coaches junior varsity basketball — each received a $25,000 prize.

The students who gathered cheered wildly, generating chicken-skin moments that, for these dedicated teachers, may have proved the biggest thrill of all.

The teens were brimming with stories about how Davis and Matsumoto inspired them and pushed them to strive for greater achievement than they thought they could attain.

Their lessons reach beyond the textbooks to cultivate attitudes conducive to success.

Matsumoto presses students toward extracurricular activities to bolster that sense of accomplishment.

Davis urges them "to leave 'I cannot' at the door, and think 'I can.' "

And this is the bottom line. All of Hawai'i must "think we can."

There is excellence within the public schools that must be nurtured and propagated. Students, teachers and administrators who work there deserve our support.

If we adopt Davis' and Matsumoto's level of commitment and dedication and apply it throughout the state's educational system, all our kids will succeed.