 Good morning! Welcome to Think Tech Hawaii's Movers, Shakers, and Reformers Politics in Hawaii series. I'm your host, Carl Campania. Education is the civil rights issue of our time, says Donald J. Trump, President of the United States. I believe it is inauguration. The interesting part about that is I don't think that he told us, after he said that, what side of the debate he's on. Until we found out who his nomination and eventual appointee was to the Department of Education in one Betsy DeVos. Well, it seems clear to us that there's a deconstruction of the education department and education as we know it at the moment. That's kind of a problem for many, many, many people. Today, my guest is Mitsihiga. She's a teacher, a member of HSTA, and she does some advocacy work as well. So we welcome her to the show to talk about a number of things. I'm going to get her thoughts on Betsy DeVos and what her impact might be for Hawaii. And then we're going to talk about maybe the biggest topic for the state at the moment and that is where education is right now and the constitutional amendment that has been put forward and is being discussed right now through our legislature. So welcome to the show, Mitsih. Hi, thank you. Thank you for having me. No, thank you. I appreciate you coming. So, okay, first of all, let's start off with telling us a bit about yourself, what you do and what has brought you to where we are right now. Okay, I'm a teacher. I've been a teacher for, well, this is going on 18 years. I taught kindergarten. I taught fifth graders. And now I'm a curriculum coordinator, so I support other teachers and I'm an ELL coordinator, so I support our ELL students as well. Okay, curriculum. Tell us what that is. Curriculum coordinator is basically, I support teachers and if they need to teach new curriculum, they're having trouble meeting the needs of some of their students. Then we collaborate together and we figure out how to meet those needs and if we need to change up instructional methods or I find resources that they might need for new content. Is that child specific or class specific? It's child specific. Wow. So that's really trying to help individual children. Absolutely. That's amazing and it's a wonderful thing to know that that's happening as well. Okay, and then ELL. So English language learners, so they can be non-English proficient or they can be limited English proficiency and as they come into our school system, every teacher doesn't speak a lot of languages, so I'm there to bridge the gap. So we actually use technology at our school. We use iPads with a voice app where the child can speak in their language, in their native language and it can translate in English to the teacher and vice versa. Wow. And this helps bridge them for a little while until they become more comfortable in English. What school? This is the Ebon Makai Middle School. Ebon Makai Middle School uses iPads. And we use Google Voice to help us. And is that, so that's a special program? It is. It was like $1.99, so it was, but it was, it was worth way much. I mean, I'm glad it was that price because that's all we could afford, but it really helps. It's worth much more than that. And you can also, instead of them typing back and forth, which is what we did prior to discovering it, and that takes a long time. Okay. So this way they can have one-on-one conversations and it translates. And it translates on the spot. Students get information right away. So that impact has been seen very clearly then? Oh my gosh. What's an example? I'm an example. When we first discovered this app, I had been walking through the cafeteria and I saw students standing on the side crying. And this is middle school, so they don't like to cry in front of each other. So I went up and I asked what was wrong and she was basically struggling with English. So we downloaded this app onto her iPad. We worked with a teacher and by two years down the line, she exited from our ELL program because her English proficiency was high enough where she could then go on her own. Wow, so that's a direct benefit. Absolutely. That's spectacular. That's great. That's wonderful. And our teacher did not speak Mandarin. Nor do I. So I get that. That would be hard. It would. So wow, okay. Well, okay, thank you for what you do there. Thank you for helping make those things happen. Because if education is a civil right, we need to make sure that we're providing the best options and opportunities for our kids, right? Absolutely. So jumping to that, as I just segue back to that comment. We are seeing the possibilities of and has been explained as a deconstruction of our government, for that matter, education being one of the pieces. We know that on one side of the aisle, the Republicans, they seem to think that we don't need a national or a federalized Department of Education. I can argue that myself a little bit in a few ways, but rather than do that. What I would like is just as succinct or as we can go on as you like, what do you see that we can think about as far as the impacts that we may see here in Hawaii from what the Betsy DeVos driven Department of Education may do? So what are some thoughts on that? Well, we're worried about some, quite a few things. But the big things we're worried about is one, she was never an educator, never a teacher. She doesn't have the credentials to be designing or deciding educational decisions for our nation. So that's problematic. Anytime anyone goes into the industry of telling schools what they need to do and telling teachers what they need to do without the education degree, it's concerning. She, her voucher system, for instance, she thinks vouchers, okay, so we can give families a voucher where they can use this voucher to go to a private school. However, you know any voucher is never going to cover the full cost. So you're still going to have students who can't afford the school of their choice and will still have the non-equitable education. So let me back up a little bit. Sure. So the, first of all, the previous Secretary of Education. Yes. Did they have background? They had a background in education and was ahead of Chicago Public Schools. I'm not saying he was the best either, but at least he had that foundation. We always worry about, there's always a push and pull between federal control and state control. And we do want a lot of state control. That is true. However, we need federal supports as well and federal money. We have a lot of, not a lot, but we have federal money coming in to help our ELL students, to help our special ed population, to help our teachers with professional development. We have some coming in. And the worry too with Betsy DeVos is that that might go away. And so where are we going to make up that difference? Take school lunches away. There's a number of things that are being presented. Like you're going to take food away from our children. So there's a place for the federal government in our education and it does provide guidance. We just don't want micromanagement. Right. And that makes a lot of sense. The conversations that I've had and that we've actually had on the show even last year revolved around the fact that the teachers don't have a whole lot of say in what they're teaching and how they're teaching it. Right. They're not being consulted as the professionals. You're not being consulted as the professional. You are. Right. So what are you going to do in your classroom and how to address the children and the educational needs? Right. We've seen a lot of blame game looking at teachers as, oh, you're the cause and these evaluation systems coming out even with the last, with Aaron Duncan. You know, we saw these, let's get the bad teachers out. And really when you look at our data for even Hawaii, okay, so 98% of your teachers were fine with whichever evaluation system they threw at us. So really are we going to jump through more hoops and spend more money on getting the bad teachers out if that in fact is not the problem? Well, we understand that from, again, that side of the aisle, from the Republican side of the aisle, they want to attack teachers. The hidden idea there is, and it's not so hidden, is what they're attacking is the union. Yes. They tend to say we protect the bad teachers. And that's absolutely not true. We believe in due process and that should be a right of anyone, you know, to have due process, like if you're accused of something or if they say you're a bad teacher, you should be able to defend yourself. And that's due process. That's all we say. I had some standards to even measure and they throw around these standards that don't make sense in a classroom setting. Right. Teachers, you know, whatever standards you give us, we know how to teach it. But the problem with, say, when Common Core came out is that our state and other states and nationally, they thought, well, teachers won't know how to figure this out. We should give them to the curriculum. And that's an insult to teachers because we can figure out the curriculum. And we were doing just fine. We were making great gains before new curriculum was handed out. And that's a problem. That's the micromanagement that it takes away the professionalism of teachers. So your title, there are a couple of initials after your name. Yes. I earned my doctorate. So you're a doctor of education? Yes. So therefore we need to recognize that, that our teachers have, many of our teachers have significant training, significant education. Absolutely. A lot of masters out there and some doctorates as well. And more and more. You know, it didn't mean anything to my pay. But the reason I became, the reason I wanted to pursue a doctorate of education is I had questions. I had a lot of questions about education and I wasn't getting the answers I wanted from research that I saw. So I actually did research here in Hawaii of my own to look at what were those schools doing that had rising academic achievement. What were they doing and was it similar to what they were doing in the mainland or elsewhere? And can we learn from that? So I looked at elementary schools in particular and I found out those schools were doing the right things. What's happening now with micromanagement, a curriculum coming down, those schools who I studied were doing great. And yet they were said, now you need to use this curriculum. So when you say micromanagement, where is that coming from? From, I would say, started with NCLB. NCLB. So no child left behind. Okay. That was during the Bush era, right? It came out. But then it progressed to, as we changed to Arndt Duncan, then it became, I guess, 100% of students are supposed to achieve on a standardized test by a certain year. 100%. So it doesn't matter if they're ELL, doesn't matter if they're special ed students. It doesn't matter. It's a one paintbrush cover at all. We're not going to take any able children into it. So what we do with this is, yes, we have high goals for our students. But if you're not giving us the resources we need, the smaller class sizes we need, if you're not giving teachers the support and the time they need to address individual student needs, that's a problem. Because then you're saying, here's our goal, but we're not giving you anything else to help you get there. Right. Yeah. Wow. So yeah, achieve this. Achieve this, but you have no resources. Jump higher. Go. Wow. No trampoline. It really hasn't. So going from a Republican president to a Democrat president and Barack Obama, there were changes, but those changes weren't as positive, it seems. It didn't really matter who the president was. The changes weren't everything that was needed in the classrooms. Right. Unfortunately, I think, despite whichever president we've had, they started listening to outside sources, education reform. Companies who want to sell their product. And they're saying, if only you do this, the scores will go up. If only the teachers teach this curriculum of these standards, but it's not about that. It's about inequity and education. It's about what resources do we have? We have Title I schools, which is high poverty. And yet they get some resources. Sure. They get federal dollars, Title I dollars. But what are they using them for? Yeah, that's a good question. When those monies come in, where do they go? Does it go to a general fund? Or does it go to that school? At each school? Does that school's general fund? The school will decide how the money is spent. Could it be spent on anything from infrastructure and buildings and facilities? No. To classroom or technology? No. It's more for student services. So they could hire more teachers. They could get resources that they need. There are definite specifications that they have to use. Is it one of the things that a Betsy DeVos might remove? We're not quite sure what she'll do. But if she removes federal involvement at all, if they dismantle the federal education, that's where the dollars come from. So Title I schools would be hurt. They would be hit the hardest. And in my study, I didn't purposely go out for Title I schools. But come to find out, Title I schools, they were all Title I schools. They were making rising academic achievement in Hawaii at a fast rate. We're all Title I schools. Because they were getting additional money. They were getting additional money to meet those needs that they had at their schools. The individual needs in order to raise them. Wow. Right. And the principals and teachers were given autonomy at the same time. Was that a study that you did on your own, or what was it? It is. It's a study I did on my own, of course, for my dissertation. Yeah. For your doctor. There you go. Yes. Have those results, have they been published? It is published. Through USC. Okay. Excellent. We have to go take a break now, so that's how quickly this goes. So thank you for joining us. This is Think Tech Hawaii's Movers, Shakers, and Reformers. I'm your host, Carl Campania. Thank you again to Mitsuhiko, teacher, and HSTA, and education advocate and doctor. So thank you for joining us. See you in a minute. Okay. So I'm Crystal. If you haven't tuned into QuackTalk before, you better do it because you're missing out on all the information. We talk about sex. We talk about religion. We talk about everything and nothing. So we've got two gentlemen here going to validate that, right? Greg Kinkley and Roy Chu. What's your take on the importance of talking about these issues? It's very important. It's through, I think, expressing ideas and exchanging ideas that we come to a better understanding of the world and each other. And without that, we live in ignorance and fear. Yeah. Fear is based on ignorance. Amen. Greg. Amen. What more could I say than that? Something in Yiddish. I think fear is on the edge. Oh, I know. Come. Listen to QuackTalk Tuesday mornings. Aloha and happy new year. It's 2017. Please keep up with me on Power Up Hawaii, where Hawaii comes together to talk about a clean and just energy future. Please join me on Tuesdays at one o'clock. Mahalo. Welcome back to Think Tech Hawaii's Movers, Shakers, and Reformers Politics in Hawaii Series. Once again, I'm your host, Carl Campania. And welcome again, Mitsihika. Thank you. So, okay. We were talking in a previous segment about a range of different things. Something that came up was the vouchers and the school vouchers, which I know is the thing that certainly the Republican Party's been talking about for a long time. On its surface, it kind of seems like, well, it's a voucher program, so you're providing an opportunity for kids to choose whatever school they want to go to. They can go to any school they want, right? Yeah. What's the downfall? What's the downside that is not being presented there? The impact is that this money that is used for those vouchers will drain the public school system of the little dollars they already have. Not only that, when they use the vouchers, say at a private school, there's no accountability. I mean, they always say, oh, we're going to hold our public teachers accountable. We're going to hold our public schools accountable. But if that voucher goes anywhere, you can't hold a private school accountable for anything. Okay. It's not. And how much is that voucher? What's the value of that voucher? They haven't even said how much it would be or how much. Because if it's a full scholarship versus here's a small stipend and the rest of it you're on your own. Right. And they don't say that. Then once again, who you're helping, you're helping people who maybe can afford it already anyway. Right. And so maybe their child is already in a private school and now, so they'll get a discount on that because they get this voucher to cover what they're on. By the taxpayers. By the general public. Yes. Which means the people who can afford it are actually benefiting from a variation of socialism, actually. Absolutely. So that's, okay. All right. Well, all right. So I just wanted to go back to that one real quick. So, okay. Now, there's some special stuff going on here in Hawaii right now. And so I want to spend the rest of this segment talking about what is trying to be accomplished here in Hawaii with regards to the constitutional amendment. So there is a constitutional amendment at the moment that has been imposed. And so please, if you can give us a little bit of background and begin the conversation for us with regards to what this is and where it came from. Okay. So we've been looking in Hawaii as educators. We know that we've been underfunded for a long time. And like you said, when, who knows that most, the teachers, we're spending our own money, our own paycheck as it is for supplies in our classroom. Because like if I have a student that needs something, like they need math manipulatives in kindergarten. That's like, it looked like toys, but they helped them do math. But your school doesn't have the funds for those manipulatives. The teacher will buy those manipulatives. And they can be expensive. Yeah. And you'll buy extra crayons for those students that don't have them. We have a lot of teachers that have food in their classroom for those children who don't eat. Because we, our heart, I mean, those are our kids. We don't look at them as our students, but our kids. Do you get reimbursed for any of that? No. Do you get a tax credit for any of that? There is a federal tax credit for teachers, $250. $250. Right. For a year. So you will get reimbursed by the federal government, $250 for your own money spent in your classroom. Yes. Okay. Well, you get, yeah, you basically get to take it off your taxes as a tax credit. Right, right. So, yeah. Okay. So it's not, okay. So you're not paying taxes on that. However, teachers spend more than that. And that's what I was going to say. What would be the, I don't know, typical amount per year that a teacher might spend? We have seen $500. We have seen $1,000. Wow. And especially new teachers. I know when I was a new teacher, I did not tell my husband how much I was spending until the end of the year. And it was a couple thousand. Wow. Because I was trying to stock my classroom library with books that I needed for my kindergarteners. Math manipulatives was another thing. Some computer programs. So supplies, materials, technology, and food. Oh, absolutely. And food. You know, if you want to do a cooking demonstration so they can, we can talk about fractions, you're buying that food. So first of all, thank you. And I thank all of the teachers for doing that. But I'll ask, is that, is that how that should work? Is that how that should work? Should we have our teachers subsidize what the government is not providing or in a public school? It's a public school. Which means it's a government provided education. Right. But they're not providing everything needed. Right. Such that the teachers have to supplement. And then, you know, supplies is just one little part of it. The biggest part is pay for teachers. You know, I've been teaching, this is my 18th year. Even I have considered leaving the profession. When I got my doctorate in 2012, I considered going on and teaching at the university. But in the end, I chose to stay because I know there's a fight we need to win. And that's why I'm here. So that makes you a hero. That makes you a hero. I hope in the end. It's self-sacrificing hero. So we appreciate that fight. So, okay, let's go back to what is the constitutional amendment? What does it mean? Okay. So we have a proposed constitutional amendment in the legislature right now. And what it would do is provide additional funds for a public school, specifically for teacher recruitment and retention. So keeping those good teachers, not letting them go, but also recruiting them, especially locally. How can we recruit them? If they don't see that a job as a teacher is going to pay their bills, they may not enter the profession. And unfortunately, that is really sad because... Well, that's also a no-brainer. It's like, okay, if I have the option of making enough money to pay my bills or not making enough money to pay my bills, what choice am I going to make? Right. You're making an economic decision for your family, even if your heart wants to be a teacher. And we want those bright students who want to be a teacher, who have the heart for it, too, to come in the profession and stay. I mean, they leave after five years or less than five years. I recently heard of teachers that are over 20 years teaching and they're leaving the profession because they work... 40% of our teachers work second jobs. And I know a lot of people work second jobs, but here's the problem. We can't stay after school to tutor our students. We can't do the grading after school that we need to do. So we're taking it home till midnight. We can't concentrate on our students if we have a second job, and that's a travesty. That is, that is. I mean, it's a profession, and we don't treat it that way. So, okay, this is Senate Bill number 683, and it's gone through... Senate's gone through House, and it's now got a CD1. Yes, so... So why did we do this as a constitutional amendment? Okay, so we're the only state of the nation that doesn't use property taxes for our public schools. The only state. Most states have a large portion of their property taxes that go to fund their schools, and then the state puts in the other part of the money. So we were looking at, last year we tried GET, and we thought, well, maybe, you know, because it'll be spread out. Well, you know, we could do it that way, because the one thing we know, we need more funding for our schools. We are chronically underfunded. Class size is growing, supplies are down, special ed services are needed. We need people for special ed services that cost money, but it should. 500, 502 fewer, you know, 500... Teacher shortage, teacher shortage. 500 teachers that are not there, that are needed to be supplemented as well. Actually more than 500. It's more than 500. I have data from that the Department of Education presented in front of the BOE this year in front of the Board of Education. And as of August 1st this year, they had 389 positions. These are called emergency hires. They aren't certified teachers yet. Okay, they're in the classroom. On top of that, there were 531 teachers that weren't there. That's the vacant part. So that's 900 combined with some that are not yet actually teachers. Right. And then some that aren't there. And they're being thrown into a classroom. And here's the scarier part, where they were thrown. So teachers without their certification were in special ed classrooms. 134 teachers without their license were thrown into a classroom without being certified with our most vulnerable students. Wow. And 126 students were vacant. So guess who goes there? Substitutes. Yeah. And substitutes, although for the majority, have a college degree. But a college degree does not make you a teacher. No. Right. Just because I've been to a doctor doesn't make me a doctor. Right. Right? Just because you've gone to school and you've been in a classroom and you've seen how your teacher is taught, doesn't mean you know how to do it. Yeah. It's a skill. It's a profession. Yeah. And so we're asking our substitutes to be long-term, to fill in. We have substitutes who are not science-trained being science teachers. Science substitutes. Which from the math and science and the subject matters matter. Substitutes. Expertise matters. Absolutely. A calculus substitute teacher who never took calculus. I've taken calculus. You can't just do it. No. You don't just say, hey, today I'm going to do calculus. There's a foundation and a basis that if you never got it, you can't explain it to anybody. Absolutely. And that's hurting our students. And that's why we keep fighting for something to fund our schools. Okay. So last year, and I know that I had a quote recently last year on, and we talked about trying to bring money in through general excise tax. Yes. That didn't pass. Didn't pass. Didn't make it. So this year, the constitutional amendment is because, and we need that because we're one of the only states that doesn't do any funding for your property taxes. So the constitutional amendment is trying to make a change to our constitution so that monies from property taxes will go towards schools. Right. Because currently in our state constitution, counties have control of all property tax. So it has to be a constitutional amendment to allow the state to do a surcharge for public education. Okay. So that's why a constitutional amendment is basically saying the public will vote on it in the end. So we just want it on the ballot and the public's going to be the one to decide. Yeah. And how much money is being looked at in this? We're looking right now. I mean, it all depends, you know, where it goes in conference committee, which is where it is now, and they decide on the threshold. If we're looking at, first of all, everyone should know that their own house that you live in will not have this surcharge. It's on investment properties and visitor accommodations only. That's important to know. That is absolutely important to know. Sorry I didn't mention it sooner. But so the house you live in, you're fine. Okay, so let's say you have one other property that's an investment property. So you rent this out. If it's not over a million dollars, you also do not get this charge. When it was in the senate, you talked about different versions of the bill. Right. It was put at 2 million. So if it, if the value, the assessed value is not over 2 million, you wouldn't be charged the surcharge. They also had a version where if you had one property, no surcharge, if you have a second investment property, that would receive the surcharge. So right now that's what conference committee is all about. They're deciding where to, what kind of exemptions there might be. So the fact that it's in conference committee means that it has passed through otherwise. Yes, it has. With various different amendments and changes. It's passed through otherwise such that now it's in conference committee in hopes of hammering out these details and coming to a consensus that they can all sign off on. Right. And if they can all sign off on this one million and over receive that surcharge of investment property only and visitor accommodations as well, then we'll receive about 500 million for our schools each year. Desperately needed. Okay. And let me say last year the GET increase was trying to get about 800 million. Yes. So this one is less. It's less. But it's the same. Every dollar is needed and every dollar per child is needed. Absolutely. As well. So we're at the end of the show already and there's so much that we didn't actually get to cover. So what I would like to do is invite you and Corey back after the session so we can do sort of a recap on what happened and where we are. And thank you for joining us. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for joining us. Thank you to the staff and the crew and everybody here at Think Tech Hawaii. We'll see you next week.