The education of our children is one of our most important responsibilities. The way we teach our students and run our schools will determine Hawaii’s future. And today we face a crisis in our public education system.
As parents, we cannot allow politicians and bureaucrats to compromise the most important investment we make in the lives of our families and our communities.
As citizens, we must not accept anything but the highest priority for public education. We
can’t afford to let our schools become just another bargaining chip on the negotiating table.
The consequences are too great. The investment too important.
Our state has the resources to provide our students with the best public education possible. What we lack at this moment is the political will to make our schools our top priority.
We are suffering a crisis of leadership. Too many politicians and bureaucrats in Hawaii are trying to pass the buck and claim that our education crisis is someone else’s fault, someone else’s responsibility. They offer only more delay, distraction, and denial, hoping the problem of rebuilding public education will somehow go away, or that we will forget about it.
But the final responsibility falls on us as parents and citizens.
Unless we want more delay, distraction, and denial, we must send a strong and clear message to our leaders in Honolulu that our children must not be cheated out of their education.
WE CANNOT AND MUST NOT ACCEPT TEACHER FURLOUGHS ON SCHOOL DAYS.
We must demand another solution to budget shortfalls. The quality of our kids’ education is at stake.
The only way that our elected officials will hold unions and bureaucrats accountable for the quality of our children’s education, is if we hold them accountable by calling, writing and e-mailing our lawmakers, and by only electing leaders who make our schools their highest priority.
As your State Senator, I am committed to doing whatever is necessary to restore all lost school days.
If we work together as parents and citizens, we can fix our broken education system. It will require not only greater political will and investment of our resources, but on a deeper level it will require new commitment, responsibility, and accountability from our leaders and ourselves as parents and citizens.
Make your voice heard today. Contact Public School Superintendent Pat Hamamoto and Governor Linda Lingle and insist that we restore every school day NOW.
‘Josh Green M.D. is a State Senator and a practicing MD in Kona. See more at
https://www.joshgreen.org’