Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 26, Number 2, 1 February 2009 — OHA should intervene in education [ARTICLE]

OHA should intervene in education

Trustee Akana is right OHA should be more involved. (January KWO). Start with improving education in puhlie schools on Nānākuli's Hawaiian Home Lands. More than 40 percent of our kids are failing to complete high school. A major reason is the high teacher turnover advantaged area schools use ours to fill their vacancies). Principals now go to the mainland to recruit inexperienced teachers (who practice on our kids, gain experience and leave when tenured). OHA needs to end it. Get solutions, e.g., schools in advantaged areas need to qualify a probationary teacher before opening up the position to a tenured one, or offer an incentive to a tenured teacher to trade places with a beginner for a eouple of years, or upgrade and equip our schools to standards in advantaged schools. Get the state Department of Education to provide parents with a list of kindergarten readiness skills, of skills needed to succeed in learning

in first, second, third and fourth grades. Nānākuli's charter school, whose teachers have master degrees, and brightest students, robs our needy kids of qualified teachers, and positive peer examples. But then this is work, giving away money is easier. Bill Punini Prescott Hōnōkuli, O'ahu E KALA MAI In the January issue, the photo eaphon for an article on a film project for incarcerated youths should have said their faces were blurred to protect their identities. Also in January, news brief on a homesteader savings program through Hawai'i First Federal Credit Union should have explicitly stated that the program is for residents of Hawai'i Island only. KWO regrets the errors.