 Think Tech Hawaii. Civil engagement lives here. Welcome to Talk Story with John Wahee. Aloha everyone. We've got a special show for you today. I've got a friend of mine who agreed to come here and do a little reminiscing. And I'd like all of you, if you don't already know who he is, to meet Chali Tuguchi, who was a state senator for a number of years and represented the windward side of the island. Well, you're also in the state house, so yes, you're a boat. But what's the reason for inviting Chali was that doing my entire tenure as governor, Chali, you were superintendent of schools. So our adventure together in education spanned my tenure in office. So that would be eight years. In fact, I don't know any other superintendent who served eight years. Do you? Well, Governor, thank you for having me on this program. It reminds me a lot of our old times together. Yeah, it does. I don't know anybody who served as well as you. So Chali, you're one of my favorite cabinet members. So I want to invite you back. Yeah. Okay. And I want to talk story with you a little bit about what we were trying to do in education, how the educational system works today, and maybe some of the successes that we can see as people go about the work of educating all young people in this day and age. So first of all, you worked with an elected board. Yes. How is that? It seemed like it was a pretty political process. Yeah. Governor, it was very challenging because all of the board members were elected. Politicians. They were all politicians. And you and I being elected officials. Also, we know how politicians can be. And so, but when you compare that to today, if we look at when we were there and today, I would say we have a great Board of Education now. The Board of Education now is appointed. Right. And I think the law passed in 2011. Right. And by the way, the law, the change in the law was really supported by all the governors. Yes. The incumbent, I think, at that time was, was it Neil? Neil. Neil Abercrombie. Governor Abercrombie. But Linda Lingo, who was a Republican, supported it. I supported it. Yes. Ben Caetano and Governor Yoshi. Yes. The governors of the state, anyway, believed that an elected board would be better for education. And because of the appointed board. Yes. And because of that appointed board, the governor makes the appointment. And the current board is a very good board because of the appointments that Governor Iggy has made. All right. We have a cross section of outstanding educators. We're getting, I think, two of the best coming in. A former principal of Farrington High School. Really? Yeah, Cathy. I can't think of her last name now, but. I remember her. She was, she really turned around Farrington. Yes. Yes. In fact, she's going to be the chair of the board. Oh, terrific. I believe this. And I've expressed this thought that, you know, we got a lot of capable teachers out there and they work hard. But what makes, what takes a school that extra notch, it's just that little, is the quality of the principal. I mean, understanding how to administer a school is a challenge, you know. Yeah. I think with the current board and the governor working together, they've created a situation where they're trying to empower the schools. And in a school like that, you need a good leader, as you said, a good principal. And that empowerment, I think the governor has offered the schools the flexibility that they need. So at that point, it becomes the governor's role is to support the school, provide them with resources, provide them with the support that they need. And get the right people in the right places. Yeah. And in 19, I think it was 1986, David Ige was chair of the House Committee, and Mike McCartney was chair of the Senate Committee, Education Committee. And at that time, they passed Act 150. And so what you see, the movement today that you see in the schools are based on that Act 150. That's right. Remember, you and I used to have so many discussions. Right. And it's so wonderful to see, you know, how history comes together. Right. Because you remember what it was called? School based, community school based management, right? We were trying to, we were playing around with the idea. And the current governor, David Ige, was the chair and education chair in the House. And Mike McCartney, who is his chief of staff right now, was the chair of the Senate Committee. Yes. You know, in the Senate. And so you had to go down there, and you and I had had these long discussions. And Francis McMillan. Francis McMillan was the chair of the Board of Education. Right. Which, by the way, was not necessarily in tune with some of the things that we, you know, were tempted to do. So David, Governor Ige now and chief of staff, Mike McCartney, actually were in on the beginning. Yes. Of the idea of returning the, I guess you would call it the governance. Yes. To the community. Yes. And teachers. Yes. And, wow. And if you look at the current superintendent, Dr. Kishimoto. Right. If you look at her priorities, her priorities are teacher empowerment, student involvement, and school design. By school design, what she's talking about is how we organize the school to empower the school. Well, Charlie, you were superintendent. You're an educator. So I may not be getting this. So why don't you go a little bit deeper into this idea of school design? I mean, what exactly does that mean in terms of the people on the ground? I think it's the recognition that those on the front line, those in the schools every day, know best what's best for the youngsters. And it's involvement of the entire community, not only the teachers, but the parents and the students. Well, I've heard it said that without the parents support, it's very difficult. Exactly. And it's not the top-down, you know, the way we were taught along the way. And so schools are getting empowered now. I see good things happening in our schools today. I think Cathy Matayoshi did a good job and then carry over to this superintendent. Well, I think that transition was handled very well. And this current superintendent seems to be very creative. I mean, I don't know per, you know, very personally, but she seemed to be very creative in following that path. I have, I'm sitting here having fond memories of you and I sitting at my governor's office. It was like two weeks before, oh no, like several days before the state of the state. I'm saying, Charlie, we got it. I got to get this down to a point that I can talk about it. And now to realize that we got a governor and a superintendent actually carrying out what to us was a little foggy vision. It's kind of exciting. I think when we were there, like, you know, governor was spent over 25 years ago that we left. So if you back that up eight years, so it's like over 30 years ago, right, when we talked about empowering the schools and it took others to complete this full circle. And I'm very hopeful today because I don't know if you feel the same way I do. But when I when I hear about that, when I see that happening, I mean, it's like it makes you really proud. And it also makes you realize that, you know, there are other people that can pick up the ball and run with it and do a fantastic job. And so I believe, I believe that from what little I know of what's going on now, I find out by reading the paper and talking to people. But I feel that the schools are heading in the right direction. I think our policymakers are understanding what their roles are, the governor and the legislature. And rather than prescribing that, for example, that we want to teach foreign language and to to get a top down mandate that you are to teach foreign language at every school, it's better to pass a resolution in the legislature requesting that the Board of Education consider teaching and leave the decision, the education decision. What language, for example. Yeah. And how, yeah, and how they do it, you know, how. Well, that's kind of interesting because, you know, we, all of us, many of us anyway, we have all heard of the Democratic Revolution in terms of how the Democratic Party really democratized Hawaii in the 50s and the 60s, mainly with the return of the of the Nisei from World War Two and so forth. These things are legend in Hawaii. But in back then, what the school system seemed to exist with a lot of, I would say, discrimination. They were English only or English proper standard schools. And there were other schools where kids that may have come from a different background weren't given the same quality of education as others. I mean, even there was doing that dark era, there was support for the private schools at the expense of the public school. Things were bad. So the revolution brought in the concept of everybody was going to be equally treated. Everybody was going to be equally treated, which was a good thing for its day. But then I heard the governor say something recently, which I totally agree with, by the way. And I thought that we might want to discuss that he said we are no longer, we are no longer going to say that one size fits all. Exactly. You know, yes, kids are different. They're all different. And I think every child is entitled to the best education that they can get. And it's not always the same education. Right. Right. And so what that means then is that the kids on Kaua'i may have something to contribute to their own education that is different from somebody in Moiliili, for example. Exactly. Exactly. And we need to recognize their contributions as well as the circumstances in life. So I'm fascinated. He said that. He says, you know, we don't have a one system fits all process anymore. We are going to recognize that each child has a different rate. And you think that's a good thing. Yes, definitely. Yeah, because, you know, I what I think I can see is with there seems to be when you approach education in that way, there seems to be a kind of excitement about it. It's not dull, you know, it's not made for the lowest common denominator. It's made for the person wherever they are. And, you know, we're going to take a break in a little while. And when we come back, let's focus on that. Let's focus on what's happening now in education that appears to be exciting to a couple old timers. Okay. A couple old we had our shot, you know, our job was we believe I believe till today that the center of our future was public school system. There's no question, you know, and and I know that you believe that as well. And with and that's how we build Hawaii's future. So when we come back, we'll talk about the governor. And maybe we start off with a promise that he made. Okay. You know, start off with a promise that he made. He promised that he was going to air condition schools. Okay. Let's talk about that. Hi, my name is Bill Sharp host of Asian Review coming to you from Honolulu, Hawaii right here in the center of the Pacific Ocean. Asian Review is the oldest of the 35 or so shows broadcast by Think Tech Hawaii. We've been in production since 2009. Our goal is to provide you the viewer with information, breaking information about events in Asia, Asia being anything from Hawaii west of Pakistan, from the Russian far east south to Australia and New Zealand. We hope to see you every Monday afternoon at five p.m. Hi, I'm Ethan Allen, your host on Pacific partnerships in education here on Think Tech Hawaii. Every other week, Tuesdays at three p.m. We have guests on and talk about the fascinating, interesting and unique partnerships in education that occur across the Pacific Islands with Hawaii, Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, Palau, Guam, all these places have really rich local education programs going on. And the exchange among and between these programs is a wealth of great information helping the islands all learn how to survive and thrive in our ever-changing world. I hope you'll join us on Pacific partnerships in education. Aloha and welcome back to Talk Story with John Wahee and my very special guests and good friend Charlie Taguchi, former state senator, former superintendent of schools, all around guy committed to education not only as a part of his career but just you know just in general. By the way, folks, if you want to ask a question, you may not have a chance to do it in any other forum, but if you want to ask former superintendent Charlie Taguchi a question, call us at 808-374-2014. 808-374-2014. Well, Charlie, just before the break, we started talking about the Governor Egan's promise. He made a very interesting promise during the campaign. He said that, or maybe it was right after the campaign. I'm not sure of the timing, but I know he made a promise and he said, I intend to air condition, air condition a thousand rooms in the school. And you know, and for maybe, maybe, maybe for the average person, what air condition rooms? I mean, I never had air condition, you know, like that. But when he made that promise, I remember another episode you and I had and you took me out to Nanakuli. Nanakuli, I guess it was, well, it was intermediate and high and we walked around the school and you took me in the classrooms and the place was stifling. It was so hot and you told me, Governor, we got to have some air conditioning. These kids are not learning in this, and it's obvious that education couldn't take place. And yet we couldn't pull it off. And this is why Governor, it was very interesting when Governor Iggy said he was going to air condition. Yeah, I said, well, I can do it. How are you going to do it? We couldn't find the money to air condition the schools at that time. And so it was very interesting that the governor was able to do it. And not only a thousand schools, but I think he's at 1300 today. And I think one thing that we never thought of at that time was that we couldn't do it because of the cost. But yeah, the cost, by the way, it wasn't the cost of the air conditioning. See, that's what people got. And I remember when you told me that, I said, yeah, we can buy air conditioning. You know, air conditioners, they may not be as neat, as nice as they are today, but they were good air conditioners back then. The real cost was Hawaiian Electric. It was the electric bill. And by the way, I'm not knocking on an electric. I'm just saying that the cost of electricity in Hawaii is not one of our great selling points. So when we added up, we even had people volunteering, by the way, to buy the air conditioners, the actual machines. But the one nut that we could not crack was the cost of operating. Exactly. No. How did they solve that problem? Technology. He's an engineer. Okay. He's an electrical engineer. Okay. So today, technology, solar. So it is alternative energy. Alternative energy. Completely different from our days. And so costs have come down. And the monthly bills, I think, in fact, I think with renewables, it's cheaper, probably. Yeah. Oh, yeah. It's cheaper. Wow. Cheaper. And but the more important, well, just as importantly, in my opinion, are the testimonials that are coming out as a result of it. I mean, people are actually, in fact, there was one young person, I remember, who made a statement, something along the lines that the air conditioned classroom really contributed an extra month to his education, because it was so hot during a certain period of the year, that really there was a month off. Nobody could learn in that circumstances. That's right. And you know, I think with technology today, I think a lot of things are possible, not only in terms of air conditioning to give the students a more conducive learning environment, but I think technology is a way to learn also. Yeah. It's a learning mechanism. I mean, there's this interact. I don't understand the challenge. So you're educated. I don't. You're educated. You may be able to explain this to me. But there is this necessity, really, for an interaction with machines that we didn't have. We were not aware of. I watched these kids going around with their tablets. iPads. iPads. And I've heard that for many children, if you don't know how to use, which is in fact a computer, when you enter school, you really start falling behind. Yes. And so this is why many schools are, I think with the support of the policymakers, like the governor of legislature, they're getting more and more iPads and computers into schools, because that's how you learn and you work out in the community. And more and more, I think they're bringing the community into the schools and the businesses and etc. Because what is education? Education is to prepare our youngsters to be productive citizens, to get a good job and to be able to take care of their families. You know, and it's amazing because my wife is totally committed to reading and reading to youngsters and having youngsters read and adults and the rest. And we often have this discussion. She and I come from a generation, we love books. I mean, I just love books. I cannot throw away a book. She has to sneak around and sell it at one of her bookstores, you know, just steal it from me. But I keep thinking and I keep telling her, you know, the machines of the future, because I have a Kindle and which I, you know, read all the time. I said, this is a machine and I'm reading it like a book and I keep many books in this machine. And you can't take it away from it. Well, all these kids are doing that. By the way, this is an aside. The person who got me started reading on a Kindle was your old buddy, Governor Caetano. I had my kids bought me this Kindle and I could never bring myself to, you know, play with it. And when I ran into Ben once and I said, and he had one, I said, how you find that? Yeah, it's terrific. And so I figured, you know, the one thing I didn't want to have in life was for him to be more technologically advanced than I. So I learned how to use the Kindle. And you know, I wanted to mention this to you, you know, the Governor E. Gay worked his way through high school by working at the Canary. And that's how he went to college. He got, he went to a public school, by the way. He graduated post-city high school. Pearl City High School. You guys ought to be very proud of the Governor. There's an interesting story about him. He applied to major colleges throughout the nation. Did he get accepted to MIT? Yes, yes. And I don't know, some other real people. But he didn't tell his parents. He didn't tell his parents. Yeah, because he had all these brothers, I think he's got like four brothers. And he didn't want to place any hardship on his parents. If he went to a school on the mainland, you know, the cost of doing it. The cost of that. So he went to a good school. He went to the University of Hawaii and came out of the lecture. Well, you know, I think that's a good thing. Yeah. And then has left an imprint on the Governor. And this is why he is involved in programs like Hawaii Promise. Explain Hawaii Promise real quick. Let's get that out there. Yeah, this is a great note. They just signed the bill recently. They augmented the program with an additional, I think, half a million dollars. This is like a scholarship program for students. Yeah. They want to guarantee that a youngster who prepares himself and want to go to college, that money is not going to come in the way. You know, that's fantastic. And the Governor also started the program that allowed students that are currently in high school to take college classes. Yes. An example of that was at Hawaii Power High School. Right. Where we just had 12 students graduate from college before they graduated from high school. For example, with an associate arts. They had their graduation recently, I think last week. Right. And when they graduated at Waipao High School. They had the week before they had already graduated from... They had their AA. You're right. Which is fantastic. Yeah, because what that will do, it'll save you two years of tuition at the University of Hawaii. Because community college, two years, you can apply it to University of Hawaii. Right. And the University of Hawaii's tuition now is about $12,000 a year. $24,000 got saved. Exactly. Because the kids that from high school that take these college classes that work to an associate, they do it for free, right? Yeah. And this is one of his programs, I mean. And the amazing thing about that is that kids, they can still, students, they can still go to high school. And at the same time, they're capable of earning their college degree. You know, we talk about these programs in the sense of how much money they save the parents. And that is important. Believe me. I remember when my son came back from the mainland and said, Daddy, I only want to go to University of Hawaii. I think the powers that be that I can find me afforded instead. You know what it was like. But what's really interesting to me is seeing the impact on the student for somebody who's gone out there who has earned college degree. You know what that does to somebody's confidence and the ability to believe in themselves? That's a fantastic program. You're just about guaranteed their success. Oh, yeah. Well, I tell you what, what's interesting and exciting is that the principal at Waipahu High School is so excited about this program. He's encouraging every student in his school to take advantage of it. And the societal impact of having students being able to go to college that would not have done otherwise is fantastic. You are breaking the chains of poverty. You're creating opportunities that don't exist. It's exciting. And I just want to say before we get off there that we have good public schools. Good public schools and good public school teachers. Exactly. And if you have a concern to the audience, I would say if you have a concern, get involved because the schools will welcome you, your involvement. Thank you. Thank you, Charlie. Thank you. It's two guys from the past, reminding everybody about what a great Hawaii we have. Aloha. Thank you. Thank you, Governor.