Lihu’e – In a sign of solidarity among educators throughout the island, teachers from Hanalei to Kekaha staged a roadside protest just before yesterday’s Board of Education meeting at Chiefess Kamehameha Middle School. Comprised of more than 150 teachers lined
Lihu’e – In a sign of solidarity among educators throughout the island,
teachers from Hanalei to Kekaha staged a roadside protest just before
yesterday’s Board of Education meeting at Chiefess Kamehameha Middle
School.
Comprised of more than 150 teachers lined up along Kaumualii
Highway, wearing blue and maroon t-shirts and holding signs reading “Honk For
Education” and “Children Learn When Educators Earn,” the group attempted to
draw attention to:
l The hiring of mainland teachers at unusually higher
pay.
l Large student-to-teacher ratios.
l And low teacher
salaries.
Because the state Department of Education has been unable to
attract qualified special-education teachers, a private company on the mainland
has been hired to locate prospective employees that fit certain criteria, said
Tom Perry, Kaua’i Uniserv director for the Hawai’i State Teachers Association.
In addition to the company – The Columbus Group – earning money for doing
what the Department of Education should, Perry said, the teachers being hired
from the mainland are being offered unusually high beginning salaries of
$35,000 per year, as well as full benefits and a series of bonuses.
Perry
said confidence among Hawai’i teachers has sharply declined because school
administrators have decided to hire new educators rather than better-train the
ones they already have.
“It’s a shame, and the state should be ashamed of
itself,” he said.
During the Board of Education meeting later, several
educators gave public testimony about the low wages of teachers throughout the
state.
Andrew Snow, a science teacher at Kaua’i High School, said the high
cost of living and low pay has put him in a financial situation where he is
unable to afford a house or keep up on his school-loan payments.
“I drive a
‘rust bucket’ car and envy my students, who mostly drive new, shiny ones,” he
said. “I love this place but seriously don’t know how I can afford to stay
here. I wonder if I could even afford to move.”
The fact that schools are
unable to hire quality teachers is obviously tied to the low wages being
offered to them, said Kevin Nunn, a special education teacher at Kapa’a Middle
School.
“You don’t get good employees, and you loose the ones you’ve got,”
he said.
Staff writer Matt Smylie can be reached at 245-3681 (ext.
226) and [msmylie@pulitzer.net]
