Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 12, Number 6, 1 Iune 1995 — OHA to the DOE: "E ʻike ana iā ʻoe i ka hale hoʻ okolokolo" [ARTICLE]

OHA to the DOE: "E ʻike ana iā ʻoe i ka hale hoʻ okolokolo"

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OHA sues state school system over immersion

by Jeff Clark The OHA Board of Trustees has announced plans to file a lawsuit to force the Department of Education (DOE) and the Board of Education (BOE) to make Hawaiian language immersion education available to every publie school student who wants it. The suit will also seek to eompel the DOE to allow native speakers of Hawaiian lacking teacher certification to teach immersion students. The state Constitution mandates in Article X, Section 4 a "Hawaiian education program consisting of language, culture and history in the public schools." But the waiting list to get into the Kula Kaiapuni (immersion school) program is long, and the DOE has at times resorted to a lottery to decide who gets to attend. In the past the DOE has cited laek of money, space, and teachers as reasons why Kula Kaiapuni can't accommodate everyone wanting to enroll in the program. "As Hawaiians we ean no longer accept boilerplate excuses such as not enough classrooms, not enough teachers, and not enough money," said OHA chairman Clayton Hee. "We have to be bold and take risks and find a way to respond to these excuses. And we cannot, as Hawaiians, accept the Department of Education using those boilerplate excuses to justify holding lotteries whieh divide Hawaiian people into groups of lucky versus unlucky, haves versus have-nots, and us versus them. We cannot accept that - and that is the basis of OHA's lawsuit." Trustee Samuel L. Kealoha, Jr. was even more direct. Gesturing toward the capitol district, where the Legislature meets, he said,

"These idiots make laws, and then they don't have the backbone to carry (them) through. They make excuses: not enough teachers, not enough room, ... it all comes down to money." The trustee suggested that there are other programs that could be cut in order to keep resources available for Hawaiian, programs that, unlike Hawaiian education, aren't required by law. "Band is not constitutionally mandated," he noted. The DOE is not only violating the state Constitution, but is running afoul of federal law as well, Hee said. The Native American Languages Act states that the policy of the United States is to "preserve, protect and promote the rights and freedoms of Native Americans [including native Hawaiians] to use, practice, and develop Native American languages." Hee noted that the DOE's policy on immersion education cites the state Constitution and the Native American Languages Act, and added that the board's action was in part precipitated by the DOE's practice of using a lottery to decide who participates in immersion education. "The ehildren will no longer be divided by a lottery like cattle," he vowed. Said Kealoha, "They should make a lottery for English class, and eliminate all the other foreign languages - French, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese: eliminate 'em." DOE Deputy Superintendent Stan Seki said he has been advised by the Attorney General to not make any comment on the proposed suit because the matter may in fact wind up in litigation. Seki would say, however, that the department is "going to try to accommodate everyone who's continued on page 7

'Olelo suit

from page 1 interested in being in the program." But, he added. the oro-

gram has four requirements: students, facilities, certified teachers, and, as the program's lead class heads toward high school, fluent speakers with the ability to use Hawaiian to teach physics, chemistry, algebra, and calculus. Seki said there are currently about 10 uncertified teachers - some of them kūpuna and all of them native speakers - teaching in Kula Kaiapuni, but stressed the need for qualified, certified instructors: "I think the bottom line is we want a quality program," he said. Hee and the DOE have been communicating often since late April when the board announced its intention to sue. "Since it became clear that we were seriously looking at filing, it's as if an epiphany has occurred," Hee said. "All of a sudden, the Department of Education has said that lotteries won't happen and that (the) language has a plaee in the curriculum." But, he asserted, the suit will be filed anyway. "History tells us that the state is a better respondent when judgements are rendered by the court," he reasoned. Hee emphasized the importance of 'ōlelo Hawai'i. "All things Hawaiian begin with the language. The language embodies the essence of being Hawaiian. If aloha is our spirit, the 'ōlelo is our soul. "If we are to survive and flourish as Hawaiian people, our language - the element that identifies us as a distinct and unique people - must also survive and flourish. Therefore, in difficult eeonomie times, we must be vigilant in our efforts to have a will to find a way. "Hawaiians should no longer look at themselves as beggars at the king's table, but rather as a people who are trying to regain what they were forced by nonHawaiians to lose - their mother tongue."