Category Archives: Education

Education

The Importance of a College Education to Today’s 4th Graders

Yesterday’s Star-Advertiser headline was College Education Grows More Crucial.

Roughly two out of three jobs in Hawai‘i will require some college education by 2018, according to a new study by the Georgetown University Center on Education. It’s one of the highest projected rates – the 10th highest in the nation – and it applies to kids who are now in the fourth grade.

Right this moment, we on the Big Island have a golden opportunity. We have Hawaii Community College, which has open enrollment. All you have to do is show up willing to study and you can get a good education building, making, growing and sustaining things. These are important skills that will be especially important in a world of a declining oil supply.

And we have the Thirty Meter Telescope, which has committed to providing an annual keiki education fund of $1 million – from the construction period through the life of the telescope, which adds up to approximately $58 million in all. The indirect benefits of locating the best telescope in the world here on the Big Island will have a positive impact on our young people. Fewer will have to leave home to find good jobs.

And if we maximize cheap geothermal usage in the face of rising oil prices, we will be able to raise the standard of living for all of us.

This is especially important for Native Hawaiian kids. Hawaiians occupy the lowest rungs of the socioeconomic ladder, and we know that education is the great equalizer. Let’s do the right thing for all of us.

Let’s not look down on the ground at the mud; let’s look forward, toward the horizon. There, the future is very bright indeed.

Education, Schools, Sustainability

Punahou Project Citizen: We Are In Good Hands

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Remember that Punahou School 8th-grade student who’d heard local farmers are having a tough time and  decided to do something about it?

I received an invitation to attend her class’ final Project Citizen presentations.

I felt that I should go and represent Hawai‘i’s farmers. After all, if they made such a commitment, the least I could do was go on behalf of local farmers.

 Aloha,

I would like to invite you to attend my class’ final Project Citizen presentations so you can be able to see what we’ve been working on for the past year. Our presentations will be on Friday, April 23, 2010 in Miyawaki Building #8-102 in Case Middles School at Punahou School from 12:30 to 1:00. Attached is a document with more details and information about the presentations. I hope you will be able to attend!

Thanks,
L-

I did attend, and told the students how proud I was of them, and that I feel Hawai‘i is in good hands with them as representatives of their generation. I told them that other farmers would be very appreciative of their efforts, too, and that I would tell as many of them as I could.

 

I explained that they can make a great difference just by asking produce managers at their local supermarket to carry local products. I told them that the management keep track of inquiries and that is responsive to its customers’ wants. Retail stores do not want to lose customers to their competition down the road.

 

Afterward, I heard again from the student L.:

I’m so happy you came to see our presentations, it was nice to meet you. Here’s my description:

Every year Punahou School has a Sustainability Fair outside, on Middle Field, which is open to everyone, the public, parents, and students. People from different environmental organizations come and have their own booths to teach people about different environmental problems and solutions. Also, there is a local farmers market where local farmers can sell their fresh produce, and artists can sell things like recycled caprisun bags out of recycled products. Students also sell recycled art that they’ve made like bracelets and earrings. Students, like my class, have their own booths, like how my class did. At our booth, we had a contract where people could sign to pledge to buy local at least once a week, and then they would get a green wristband that said “Buy Local!” to remind them to always try to buy local as much as possible to support Hawaii’s local farmers. We got over 450 signatures, which really helped. We got so many signatures, because so many people showed up and wanted to make a difference in the world and for our local farmers.

One of the highlights of our presentations was that we knew that we were making a big difference for local farmers and for us, and that we were reaching out to them. We knew that just with our presentations, we were giving local farmers hope in these tough economic times and letting them know that they are very important to Hawaii’s culture, and if we loss them, then we would loose a part of Hawaii. With the presentations, we were doing good, not just for the local farmers but for us, making us a more self-sufficient state. With the presentations, we were reminding ourselves of the importance of buying local and how it can make a big difference in our economy, the state, and for local farmers.

I hope this helps, and thank you again for coming to our presentation and representing Hawaii’s local farmers, it meant a lot to us knowing you were there.

I flew to O‘ahu just to attend the presentation, and I was so glad I did. It was great to see the students’ determination to support local farmers because it is a matter of survival for all those who call Hawai‘i home. They are very aware that we are vulnerable living out here in the middle of the ocean, and it is nice to know that they know.

A lot of the time, farmers don’t know if anyone cares. From attending Project Citizens at Punahou School, I can tell you that these young people absolutely do care.

I thank them all on behalf of all Hawai‘i’s farmers. And thank you, L., for asking me to participate.

Education, Hawaiian Role Models, Mauna Kea, Science

Kalepa Baybayan – Navigator-In-Residence at ‘Imiloa

Kalepa Kalepa Baybayan is known as a “Master Navigator,” but when I talked to him the other day, it was clear the title makes him uncomfortable. He returned to it twice.

“I would disclaim being a master of anything,” he said. “I’m pretty much a student of the art. Though I have greater responsibilities, I still learn every time I go out.”

He was talking about going out on the Hokule‘a, which he’s sailed on since 1975, when he was 19. If there is anything more interesting than the story of the Hokule‘a, I don’t know what it is.

From Wikipedia:

Hōkūleʻa is a performance-accurate full-scale replica of a waʻa kaulua, a Polynesian double-hulled voyaging canoe. Launched on 8 March 1975 by the Polynesian Voyaging Society, she is best known for her 1976 Hawaiʻi to Tahiti voyage performed with Polynesian navigation techniques, without modern navigational instruments. The primary goal of the voyage was to further support the anthropological theory of the Asiatic origin of native Oceanic people, of Polynesians and Hawaiians in particular, as the result of purposeful trips through the Pacific, as opposed to passive drifting on currents, or sailing from the Americas. (Scientific results of 2008, from DNA analysis, illuminate this theory of Polynesian settlement.) A secondary goal of the project was to have the canoe and voyage “serve as vehicles for the cultural revitalization of Hawaiians and other Polynesians.”

Since the 1976 voyage to Tahiti and back, Hōkūle‘a has completed nine more voyages to destinations in Micronesia, Polynesia, Japan, Canada, and the United States, all using ancient wayfinding techniques of celestial navigation.

The next Hokule‘a voyage, now in the planning stages, is going to be a doozy: They’re planning to take the voyaging canoe around the world. The Hokule‘a is going to circumnavigate the globe, and it will probably be a two- to three-year voyage, he said.

“As ambitious as that sounds, explorers have been sailing around the world for a couple hundred years now,” he said, “so it’s not something so far out there it’s not achievable.”

“In my very early years, looking at that traditionally shaped sail cutting across the night sky,” he said, “that’s a pretty compelling vision for a young man to see. I look up there and realize that silhouette I’m seeing is probably the same one my ancestors saw.

“The excitement, amazement, the loneliness and happiness of finding land – it’s timeless. That’s universal. So you get really close to experiencing the world and the environment in the same sense your ancestors did.”

Richard wanted to know if Kalepa navigates the canoe by the ocean, looking up at the stars, or whether he sees himself as traveling in space – in the stars?

Kalepa thought about that before answering. He said he just sees the canoe pointing in a certain direction, and things moving by it. “I don’t really experience it as the canoe being moved by nature,” he said. “Rather I see nature moving by us.”

When not at sea, Kalepa is Navigator-in-Residence at ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center in Hilo. Isn’t that a great title? “They had an Astronomer-In-Residence and they wanted a Navigator-In-Residence too,” he explained.

‘Imiloa, of course, is where we “celebrate Hawaiian culture and Maunakea astronomy, sharing with the world an inspiring example of science and culture united [my italics] to advance knowledge, understanding and opportunity.”

Kalepa and the interim executive director, Ka‘iu Kimura, are both graduates of the Hawaiian language college, and Kalepa said there’s an indigenous model of leadership emerging at ‘Imiloa.

“One of the great things about ‘Imiloa is that it’s exposing us to the national and international communities,” he said.

About a year and a half ago, he and ‘Imiloa Planetarium Director Shawn Laatsch were invited to speak at Athens and Hamburg planetariums. “There is a curiosity about indigenous astronomy,” he said, “and the story of voyaging is a really compelling story. And the context is to have Shawn speak to the [astronomical] exploration being done on Mauna Kea.”

He said while he’s really happy with where Hawai‘i’s voyaging knowledge is at, there’s still a lot of work to do. “We experimented with what we were doing,” he said. ‘We learned and we gathered the info. Now it’s a matter of, How do we teach it in an effective way? Who are the teachers?

“It’s one thing to have a conversation with canoe people who travel together all the time, but trying to talk to a new generation, that’s a different kind of process.”

This seems to be another place ‘Imiloa comes in.

“We need to make a connection to the STEM program,” he said, “to science; that encourages young learners to follow the tradition of navigation; not to be navigators, but to follow the tradition of exploring.”

“My largest responsibility,” he said, about his role at ‘Imiloa, “is that the internal compass of the organization be aligned to the horizon we want to move toward.”

Eating Locally, Education, Food Security, Government, Schools

Update on Punahou Class’ ‘Project Citizen’

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Do you remember the 8th grade class at Punahou School in Honolulu, which wrote to Richard about its class project?

From the email Richard received back in November:

My name is L.T. [name removed]. I’m a 14 year old. I’m a 8th grade Punahou School student. Wanda Adams from the Honolulu Advertiser, recommended you to me to answer some questions on a project my class is doing. The project is called project citizen, we choose a problem in our community, research the problem, and then as a class act on the problem. The problem my class chose is that many local farms are struggling because Hawaii is too dependent on imports from the mainland and around the world. Wanda Adams told me that you know a lot about this topic. I have some questions for you about this it if you won’t mind answering….

Richard recently emailed again to see how they’re doing. Here’s their exchange.

Hi L.:

How is your class doing with project citizen? I have told a fair number of folks about what your class is doing. Reaction is overwhelmingly favorable. People find it inspiring.

Aloha,
Richard

Dear Richard,  

So far, my class has made a lot of progress. My class has come up with a public policy of trying to urge the State to not have an excise tax for Hawaii’s local farmers. And our civic action (something my class is going to do) is hand out wristbands to people to remind them to buy local and, have them sign a contract to pledge that they will try to buy local as much as possible.

My class has contacted a few of Hawaii’s Senate members and House of representatives members to try to get them to pass SB1179, a bill that is similar to our public policy which we want to have as a bill in the 2010 Legislative Secession. SB1179, (National Farm to School program) is a bill that relates to our class project. If passed the National Farm to School program will be taught in all of Hawaii’s public schools, and will teach students about how important local farming is, it will encourage students to eat a healthy diet, and it will have the public school cafeterias provide as much local foods to the children for meals that are bought from local farmers.

If you would want to know more about this bill, here’s the link. I hope this bill or our proposed public policy bill will get passed through Hawaii’s Legislature this year.

Thanks,
L.

Education, Mauna Kea, Schools

Thank You, Senator Inouye

I was asked to say a few words last week when Mayor Billy Kenoi invited Senator Daniel Inouye and some folks to a get-together at ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center.

Senator Inouye said a few words and told how his mom was hanaied by a Hawaiian family when both her parents died when she was only four years old. She never forgot, and before she passed away she asked Senator Inouye to promise to repay their kindness.

The senator explained it’s why he has had a special place in his heart for the Hawaiian people all these years.

This is the speech I gave:

Thanks to Mayor Billy Kenoi for bringing us together and thanks to Senator Inouye who had the foresight to envision ‘Imiloa, this great facility that now brings the Hawaiian culture and science together.

I want to tell a story about a small 11-year-old kid who lived down the beach at Maku‘u during World War II. That was before Hawaiian Paradise Park subdivisions and before Hawaiian Beaches. To get to Pahoa, the main town, one had to walk or ride a horse.

Planes would fly from Hilo and do target practice on Moku ‘Opihi, a small island about a mile further down the coast from the family house. The pilots knew that the small kid would jump up and down and wave at the planes. Some turned their planes sideways, smiled and waved at the kid and others would buzz the house and waggle their wings.

The small kid decided right there that he was going to become an airplane pilot. He did not know how—just that he would.

That small kid came from a very poor family. No one had gone to college. But he went to Pahoa High School and played basketball. His coach, a new teacher from Texas, helped him get a scholarship to UH Manoa.

He went and since there was an Air Force Reserve Officer Training Course (ROTC) program there, he joined.

When he graduated he applied for flight school. The next thing he knew he was in Arizona, learning to fly airplanes.

He spent 20 years in the Air Force, flying KC135 refueling tankers. Later, he became the airport manager of Hilo and Kona airports and held that job for 17 years.

Senator, you may know Frank Kamahele. He is my dad’s first cousin. I just talked to him the other day and he said that he was the luckiest person in the whole world. A Hawaiian jet plane pilot and airport manager who went to Pahoa High School. He does not know why he was so lucky. He could just as easily have become a cut cane man. He told me he had been pretty good at that.

And that brings me back to ‘Imiloa and the Moores. The Moores are a large funder of the Thirty Meter Telescope. They set up a program for all the kids on the Big Island to visit ‘Imiloa.

Ka‘iu Kimura, ‘Imiloa’s assistant director and one of our up and coming Hawaiian leaders, tells me that 10,000 students have already passed through and another 10,000 are coming. Just imagine how many Frank Kamaheles there are among them!

That is what ‘Imiloa represents, and thank you, Senator Inouye for the vision and the execution.

About three years ago the TMT folks expressed interest in siting their telescope on Mauna Kea. After a year went by, folks were pretty much resigned to the fact that they were going to Chile.

I went to a Comprehensive Management Plan meeting and there were about 35 people in the room. Fifteen were against the project, one was for it and the rest were just interested bystanders.

But then things turned around. At the recent draft EIS hearing, which was the most contentious of the six hearings, 15 people spoke against it, 15 people spoke for it and there were 175 silent majority folks in the room. This was a huge turn around.

What happened?

The most important thing that happened was that Henry Yang, president of the TMT board, was a person we all could trust. He listened. And he did things local style. He came in more than 15 times, visited folks again and again and built up relationships. He went to Keaukaha four times and by the last time he was just Henry.

The second thing was that we were able to build up this coalition of all the folks you see here today. We talked story in the community a lot, and over and over we heard from Patrick Kahawaiola‘a, President of the Keaukaha Community Association, that the most important thing was “the process.”

And as we thought about this, we realized that if the process is most important, then all contributors to the process, no matter what side of the issue they are on, made for a better product. And so we always need to aloha the loud voices, too, who early on told us that things were not quite right. It was about us. All of us. Not me against you.

So when we had our first sign waving in support of the TMT, nearly 150 people showed up. We told everyone that we were meeting to celebrate the process and told them to bring their kids, and they did. It was very significant.

From there, whenever we went to hearings people felt like they were all on the same side, it was more like “I feel your pain.” We all felt like we were contributing to a better Hawai‘i.

The Thirty Meter Telescope board has committed to contributing $1 million annually to an education fund to be administered by the community, if the telescope is built on Mauna Kea. The funding starts when construction permits are issued. Including the nine years of construction time, it will total $58 million of education funds for Big Island keiki.

The Hawaii Island Economic Development Board has been working on the governance of this fund for nearly a year. We envision that the THINK (The Hawai‘i Island New Knowledge) fund will inspire and support the many Frank Kamaheles out there.

We will have done a good job if we post the pictures of all the folks on the governance board and everyone on the Big Island walks by and nods their approval.

Thank you, Mayor Kenoi, for bringing us all together. And thank you, Senator Inouye, for having the wisdom and foresight to build ‘Imiloa – this wonderful astronomy museum that blends the Hawaiian culture with astronomy.

Education, Hawaiian Role Models, Mauna Kea

Akamai Observatory Internship Program

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Richard recently spoke to 16 students in the Hawai‘i Island Akamai Observatory Internship program.

Image001

It’s an eight-week, paid summer internship funded mostly by the Center for Adaptive Optics (out of the University of California at Santa Cruz), though this year the Thirty Meter Telescope also contributed financially to the program by covering a budget shortfall.

Sarah Anderson is the program’s on-island coordinator and she explains the program’s three goals.

“One is to open pathways into astronomy, engineering and technology careers for local students. The second goal is the development of a work force for astronomy and technology, and the third is to continue to develop collaboration among the observatories themselves.”

The program starts with a weeklong preparatory course, and then there’s a seven-week internship at one of the Mauna Kea observatories. “They work on a single project under a mentor or mentor team for the seven weeks,” says Anderson. “And at the end of the seven weeks, they do an oral presentation at our symposium.”

Sarah says that during the first week’s “short course,” the goal is to prepare the students for their internship. “We do a bunch of science activities,” she says. “Hands-on, inquiry-based activities that are designed to help the students think on their own and develop their critical thinking, and their ability to start and get through projects.

“In addition, we try to get them thinking about their place in society as scientists, engineers and technicians,” she says.

“We asked Richard to come in to talk about business, sustainability and astronomy. They were very interested.”

Richard akamaiphoto by Sarah Anderson

Most of the interns either attend college at the University of Hawai‘i or one of Hawai‘i’s community colleges; four are local kids attending college on the mainland. Three are Hawaiian/Pacific Islander students.

Richard says it made him think of Paul Coleman, the first native Hawaiian astrophysicist, who now worked for the Institute for Astronomy. “He was really lucky,” says Richard. “When he was following his dream to study astronomy, there were no opportunities here and no programs available like this Akamai program. He had to leave Hawai‘i and he didn’t know if he’d ever be able to get back home. It was only because of a really unusual set of circumstances that he was able to find his way back to work in Hawai‘i in astronomy.

“I remembered Paul telling his story to the OHA board, and here were these students going through a program that did not exist for Paul when he was starting out. I looked at those kids teaming up with mentors and it just kind of took my breath away.”

Community, Education, Schools

Caring For Our Community: Keaukaha Elementary School

Patrick Kahawaiola‘a, President of the Keaukaha Community Association, is spearheading a petition drive to get Governor Linda Lingle to release $8 million that’s already been appropriated for badly needed renovations to Keaukaha Elementary School.

A year ago, when Dwight Takamine was campaigning for the Senate, Richard Ha took him to see Kumu Lehua Veincent, Keaukaha Elementary School’s principal, and Dwight also met the teachers there and toured the cafeteria. He became aware of serious problems with the school’s facilities and helped get money appropriated for a renovation.

Eight million dollars was appropriated by the Legislature last year in new construction funds for the school, but the money has not been made available.

“The newspaper article is saying that the DOE needs to come up with a request,” says Kahawaiola‘a, “and that the governor needs to hear from the DOE that it’s important.”

It’s the first they’ve heard of this, he says. “We had DOE people sitting in on our meeting, and we have kept the Board of Education member Watanabe in the loop and he didn’t say anything about this. If that’s the issue, it’s another target we need to go to.”

The renovation is regarding the Keaukaha Elementary School cafeteria, which was built in 1954, some of it with building materials given to the school by the military. According to the fire code, the cafeteria can accommodate 102 people.

“We’ve got two schools using the cafeteria,” he says. “Keaukaha has 315 students, and Ka ‘Umeke Ka‘eo, the Hawaiian immersion school [also housed on the school’s grounds] has close to 200.”

So with around 500 students using that inadequate facility, lunch has to be served in three shifts, and some students have to have their “lunch” as early as 10:30 a.m.

The elementary school’s cafeteria also serves as a community center, he explains. “The boundaries of the school, the gym and the park mark the center, the piko, of educational/recreational/health, and safety. It’s a safe place for our children if there are other places that are not. Any one of our kids could go down and be in what we consider a safe environment.”

And the Keaukaha Community Association meets in that cafeteria every third Wednesday evening. When special issues come up that impact the native Hawaiian community – such as ceded lands, gathering rights, noise abatement from the airport, sewer problems, recent Mauna Kea issues – the cafeteria overflows.

The plan is to renovate the cafeteria as a 6000-square-foot “cafetorium” that doubles as a community center and meets all the community’s needs.

“It’s not a frivolous request and I would ask for anybody’s support for this,” he says. “We worked really hard with the legislators to get this money appropriated, a grass roots kind of thing with the kids and the parents, and we have the support of the churches, too. And it was appropriated.”

The Keaukaha folks are not working on this alone –- there are people in the business and labor areas who are hard at work doing what they can to support their efforts. They “know people who know people,” and are right now asking people at the highest levels of the DOE for guidance.

Anyone who’d like to lend his or her support by signing a petition can call Patrick on his cell at 937-8217.

Community, Education, Mauna Kea, Sustainability

Money For Education

This afternoon, University of Hawai‘i President David McClain issued this statement:

After discussions with academic and community leaders on the Big Island, and review with the Board of Regents, I can say that should TMT come to Mauna Kea, the Hawaiian community and community-at-large will benefit through an annual $1 million community benefit package, which will provide funding for locally chosen and managed educational programs on Hawai‘i Island. This will begin once all permits for the project have been received.

The compensation to the University of Hawai‘i, which is expected to begin at “first light,” will be split equitably between a higher education package to be used for selected initiatives of the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo and Hawai‘i Community College on Hawai‘i Island, and observing time for University of Hawai‘i scientists.

David McClain
President, University of Hawai‘i

What catches my attention is the part about an annual amount of $1 million for locally chosen and managed educational programs on Hawai‘i Island.

I know how important early education is. My Pop was the greatest influence on me. I learned the most important things, which lasted through my entire life, when I was 10 years old.

If we teach our keiki the values they need to make a society that is successful and thriving “when the boat no come,” we will have done our jobs. This $1 million that will be dedicated to keiki education annually is key to the survival of future generations. It is no longer about us – it is about the future generations.

We must learn and perpetuate what it was that allowed Hawaiians to survive for hundreds of years out in the middle of the ocean without boats coming in every day with goods from someplace else.

In the future, our values will need to revolve around aloha. We will need to assume responsibility—kuleana. We need to make more friends and stay closer to our families.

We live in the modern world, so how do we use what we have and meld it with the values that worked? We need to have a balance of science and culture in order for all of us to do what we do to help our greater society.

My Pop told me: “There are a thousand reasons why ‘No can.’ I only looking for one reason why ‘Can.’”

***

Yesterday was King Kamehameha Day. I think of King Kamehameha as a doer, not a talker. He took what was available to him and used it to the best advantage.

Statue

Since we are going to do a sign waving in support of the Thirty Meter Telescope today, in front of the King Kamehameha statue, I thought that I would go take pictures.

Over the last couple of weeks many of us did radio spots in support of the Thirty Meter Telescope. Running throughout the spots is the word “pono.” Those ads started running today.

Download HCU_Keawe_Wallace
Download HCU_Richard_Dale
Download HCU_Rockne_Penny
Download HCU_William_Penny

We will have more soon.

***

I went on three live radio programs yesterday morning. First with Kat and Keala at KWXX, then a few minutes with DC at Da Beat, and then on with Ken Hupp at KPUA.

I talked about how I volunteered to be on the TMT committee of the Hawaii Island Economic Development Board when I first heard that the TMT was considering coming to Hawai‘i. I felt strongly that if it was to be done, it needed to be done right. I talked about going to Keaukaha Elementary School to see its principal Lehua Veincent and asking where they go on excursions.

He told me the bus was too expensive so they walked around the community. I was shocked. How was it possible that in the shadows of hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of telescopes on Mauna Kea, Keaukaha Elementary School did not have enough money to go on excursions?

My friends Duane Kanuha, Leslie, Macario and I said, “This no can,” and we decided to do something about it. We went out in the community and told the story. We said that for $600 people could adopt a class at Keaukaha Elementary School, so they could rent a bus and pay entry fees to ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center or another destination.

The idea is to inspire the kids. My Pop inspired me when I was in the fourth grade and his effect lasted a lifetime. I think the same can result from ‘Imiloa.

The Moores, a large funder of the TMT, found out about the Adopt-A-Class project and liked it. They adopted all the students of the Big Island.

I told the audience about the $1 million dollar fund that will be used for the education of our keiki. We are relying on the people we appoint to administer the fund.  We want to appoint people to the Board based on their passion for taking care of the community for the long run.

Education, Mauna Kea

Loud & Important Voices

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I’ve written a lot about the educational benefits to our keiki, young people and future generations if the Thirty Meter Telescope folks decide to come to Hawai‘i instead of going to Chile.

Now it’s time to recognize and aloha those folks who have been in the forefront, raising their voices in protest about how much needed to be done to make things pono.

Aloha to Kealoha Pisciotta, Paul Neves, Ku Ching, Hanalei Fergerstrom, the Kanaka Council and others for helping us come as far as we have.

It is because of their tireless efforts that Mauna Kea is now under the control of the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo. They won a lawsuit, and Judge Hara ruled that a Comprehensive Management Plan needed to be made before any further development could proceed. That Plan has been developed and accepted with conditions by the Board of Land and Natural Resources.

I’ve written here before that I volunteered nearly three years ago for a newly formed Thirty Meter Telescope committee at the Hawai‘i Island Economic Development Board. I came to learn a lot about the issues the loud voices were raising, and I was hugely influenced by them.

For example, it struck me that at that time there was hardly any benefit to the Keaukaha community from the multi-million dollar astronomy industry. That’s why we formed the Adopt-a-Class project to send Keaukaha kids on excursion.

The people supporting the Adopt-a-Class project were regular folks, and local business people including the Hawai‘i Island Economic Development Board (HIEDB). They did it for no other reason than that it was the pono thing to do.

At the Hawai‘i Island Economic Development Board, we approached the Mauna Kea issue from the perspective of “What is pono?” Not once did we put economic interests as top priority. I am proud to be a part of this organization.

More than a year ago, Dr. Henry Yang, Chancellor of UC Santa Barbara and the new president of the Thirty Meter Telescope corporation, and Dr. Jean Lou Chameau, President of Cal Tech, came to the Big Island to see for themselves.

At that point, the general consensus of the TMT board was probably that the TMT was going to Chile.

When I first met Henry Yang, I got the feeling he was someone who would truly listen to regular folks’ concerns. After he left, I called my brother Kenneth and told him I was optimistic that things could work out right. I felt then that Henry was someone I could do business with on a handshake. I still feel that way.

Since then, I think they have visited Hilo more than 15 times. Their objective is always to listen and develop relationships. They fly in and out quietly and don’t try to get publicity. And they actually prefer to meet regular people. They visited Keaukaha Elementary School at least four times. And they visited the Kanaka Council, Hank Fergerstrom, the litigants, as well as Hawaiian students and teachers from UH Hilo and Hawai‘i Community College.

We suggested to Henry early on that there must be a community benefit package centering on education for our keiki. He agreed, and for nearly a year the HIEDB has been working on a framework that ensures the money would be spent in a wise and effective way, free of self-interest, solely for the benefit of the keiki.

Now it’s starting to look like millions of dollars in educational benefits can come to the Big Island, free of charge. The rail project on O‘ahu is financed by taxing the people and when they use the rail system the people will pay again. By contrast, if the TMT chooses Hawai‘i instead of Chile, it will put millions of dollars annually into education for the Big Island’s keiki.

The world has changed. Finite resources are facing an increasing population. Programs for the most needy among us are being cut. Education programs are being cut. Out here on our island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, we are vulnerable. Now, it is no longer about us. It’s about future generations.

We have an opportunity now to get millions of dollars for the education of our keiki and future generations.

Are we wise enough to look to the future and dream of what can be? Let’s all go there together.

Education, Mauna Kea

TMT & Money For Our Children’s Education

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Nine months into discussions about what will be important to our community if the Thirty-Meter Telescope (TMT) comes to the Big Island, I feel that we can get at least $100 million for the education of our children over the next 50 years. At a minimum; it could be more.

Last summer, I wrote a post speculating about how the TMT could benefit our island if it were built here on Mauna Kea. I wrote:

I’m on the board of the Hawai’i Island Economic Development Board, and we’ve made it clear that this can only happen if, unlike with previous telescopes, our people clearly benefit from it.

That post last August had a lot of “What ifs,” regarding how our people could benefit from the siting of this telescope here, as opposed to what’s happened with past and current telescopes.

We have made a lot of progress. It’s pretty amazing how far we’ve come, and how many of those “What Ifs” have been addressed.

In their draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), the TMT people have committed to a community benefit package as well as a higher education package. I wrote last week, before the draft EIS was published, that the community benefit package will consist of at least $1 million dollars annually for the education of our keiki.

The higher education package will even surpass the community benefit package.

This means that the TMT will be giving at least $2 million per year, over the next 50 years, for the education of our Big Island children. That’s for both kids in K-12 ($1 million/year) and those in higher education (Hawai’i Community College and the University of Hawai’i at Hilo; $1 million/year).

Two million dollars for education every year for the next 50 years. At least $100 million over the next 50 years.

It’s a far, far cry from the $1/year rent that telescopes pay now.

The money for younger kids is to help kids so they are in a position to succeed when they are in high school-that is the whole objective. It takes smart people to do that; educators, not us. We’re just putting in the framework so the smart people can figure out how to do that in these times. The money would be administered through a foundation by seven people, chosen geographically from around the island. Programs will apply for grants.

From my post last August:

• What if the TMT coming here meant disadvantaged Hawaiian (and other race) students can attend Hawai’i Community College and the University of Hawai’i at Hilo for free?

That discussion is going on right now. People are looking at the “unmet needs” of these students.

• What if we develop a pathway for local people to fill jobs during the extensive construction and operating of the telescope?

The TMT’s Environmental Impact Statement addresses work force development. They are looking at developing the skills of today’s ninth graders, so they will be ready to step into jobs that open up when the TMT is built eight years from now.

• What if we collect all the funds attributable to astronomy and have that money administered by a group of wise people who are chosen specifically to allocate it to the education of this island’s keiki?

The Hawaii Island Economic Development Board set up the framework and governance of this fund specifically for the education of our keiki, emphasizing K-12. It will be administered by the Hawaii Community Foundation.

• What if these credible people fund education programs about the Hawaiian culture and Hawaiian language, and about traditional ways of sustainability, the sciences, job skills and other subjects that prepare our children for a new world where we, living on the island of Hawai’i, might have to survive on what exists here on our island?

We recognize that not all students are suited for a career in astronomy. A certain percentage of this fund is set aside for Hawaiian cultural and traditional approaches.

• And what if this organization exists far into the future and benefits many generations to come?

An annual contribution will ensure this. In addition, wise administration of these funds will ensure benefit to future generations.

• What if, not at the summit though on Mauna Kea, the world’s finest and most powerful telescope looks back in time to the beginning, seeking the answer to the question, “Are we alone?”…

If the TMT helps our people to help their keiki succeed, our people will help the TMT succeed.

…while on the ground, the people have learned how to restore the ancient fish ponds, and are supplementing that with modern aquaculture methods that don’t require oil? And the people on the island’s windward side are using their abundant water to again grow kalo, and growing food with hydroponics, and as in pre-Western times they are able to feed everybody without depending on foreign oil?

A rising tide raises all boats.

It would be the best of the future and the best of the past. What if?

We have some answers to our What Ifs now, and they are pretty impressive.