Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 25, Number 5, 1 April 2008 — How will charter schools impact the future of Hawaiʻi? [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

How will charter schools impact the future of Hawaiʻi?

I think that it will help because hopefully in the future we won't have as many problems as we have now like GMO (genetically modified organisms) testings 'cause we're trying to help it. The charter schools will be able to make Hawai'i a better plaee by just taking care of their kuleana, malamaing the 'āina and the oeean. keeping things the way they should be and how it used to be.

To me as a Hawaiian coming from a regular public school into a charter school, it's really different. You learn so mueh more about your culture, and as you're learning academics it's more hands-on, you actually get to go out and do these things. So for an example, for math you'd be able to go and use math to build a eanoe. . . . And I think the impact it's going to have on Hawai'i is a really strong impact, and it's great for us as Hawaiian children because we get to learn about ourselves, who we are, where we eome from, and it opens up so mueh opportunities and doors for us as Hawaiians.

I believe that charter schools will have a positive impact in the education of Hawai'i because of the low teacher-student ratio, and we're already seeing that now. I hope that more charter schools open up because just visiting the charter schools, the kids are very confident and our children will be our leaders of the future, and charter schools will definitely have a profound impact on that.

I have a bilingual school and most of my students' first language is Hawaiian, so for us in the past they were getting dropped in the cracks. Now they're very eomfortable, they feel safe in our school and they're able to speak their language. I think our impact is that we will in time raise them to become leaders in their eommunity, whereas before they weren't given that opportunity, at least that's why we became a charter. And I believe all the other charters are giving these children all these opportunities that they didn't have before, and I think we're doing great.

Unlike public schools, charter schools are more based on the culture that we have, so I think we'll have a positive impact on the Hawaiians that want to learn the culture. I think it would be a great opportunity for more people to take a stand for what we believe in.

I think charter schools will have an impact on Hawai'i's future because they're training kids in real-life skills and projectbased learning. They're training them for the future. ... They ean take care of the land, and if you're in a DOE school, unless you do outside programs you don't know how. And so when they get out into the real world they ean take care of the land so it's not ruined for the generations to eome.

I At the Ku'i ka Lono sixth annual Indigenous Edueation Conferenee I of Hawaiian-foeused eharter sehools, KWO asked attendees in Kona:

I Charon I MokiaoI Waiolama I Hakipu'u I Learning

Center, Kāne 'ohe, O'ahu Junior

Kristina Erskine Kanu o ka 'Āina, Waimea,

Hawai'i Island Administrator, grades 6-12

Lanakila Rita Kanuikapono, Analiola,

Kaua'i Eighth grader

Juewels I Ioka Hālau Lōkahi, I Kalihi,

O'ahu Junior

Aunty Hedy Sullivan Kula Aupuni

Ni'ihau a Kahelelani Aloha, Kekaha, Kaua'i Administrator

Hina Wilkerson Hālau Kū Māna, Maki.ki,

O'ahu Seventh grader