An Open Letter to the People of Hawaii

In 1994, Governor Ben Cayetano told the UH 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, the Hawaii 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 Hawaii? That is the issue. Historically in the United States, education has been the channel of upward social mobility for individuals and communities. But in Hawaii, education has served historically as a mechanism for prolonging a colonial and post-colonial social stratification system. Here in Hawaii, we have a dualistic educational system commensurate with the Hawaiian class and ethnic stratification. Thirty-six percent (36%) of Hawaii's primary and secondary students attend private schools, the highest percentage anywhere in the United States. The other 64 percent go to public schools. Because of heavy concentration of land in a few hands, public education in Hawaii 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 Hawaii social and political elite has little interest in the public educational system. The elite send their children to Punahou, Iolani, and other private schools and then on to the 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 the 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 education. 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. In other words, investment in human capital has the highest rate of return. In the United States and elsewhere, the current technological revolution in telecommunication, biotechnology, and aerospace is centered on clusters of distinguished institutions of higher education. Route 128 in Boston emerged as a result of scientific and technological innovations at Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and other universities in the Boston area. The Silicon Valley owes itself to the University of California system and Stanford. Having learned their lessons, other states such as Texas, Minnesota, Illinois, Michigan, and New York embarked upon bolstering their universities. The fruit of those investments in human capital has been the growth of over 14 silicon valleys around the United States.

As a small state with a small population base, situated in the middle of the Pacific, Hawaii may not be able to accomplish the same feat. But Hawaii 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 of Hawaii for 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. There is clearly a structural barrier to that 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 Hawaii seems to be content with the low levels of education and skill that the current public system supplies. Hawaii is thus caught in a vicious circle. Low standards in public education do not support high tech industries, low salaries drive the best talents away from Hawaii 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? Hawaii 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 Hawaii 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 Hawaii. There are also other fields in which Hawaii can excel when and if the state invests in the educational infrastructure to support them.

One last point. The current educational stagnation cannot come to an end until and unless its governance is changed. So long as the Governor appoints the Board of Regents, and the Board appoints the UH President, the University of Hawaii 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 hundreds if not thousands of excellent teachers who currently staff the Hawaii public educational system from elementary to tertiary levels, but that is in spite of the current system and not because of it. Love of Hawaii has drawn many talented people to these islands and keeps them here. But under economic duress, many others are leaving.

The current impasse between the state and teachers is too important to be left to politicians and teachers alone. The people of Hawaii have a great stake in the outcome of this controversy. Nothing less than the economic future of our state is at stake here.

Majid Tehranian

Professor, University of Hawaii at Manoa

Director, Toda Institute for Global Peace and Policy