The thought of our schools closing down

First and foremost, my one concern is our keiki in Hawai‘i. And education is one of the biggest keys for our keiki to follow on with in getting their degrees.

The superintendent of our schools of Hawai‘i; Patricia Hamamoto; will move quickly with this studies. They would like to act now so things will move forward in deciding which schools should be decided upon closing. It’s just sad on how we have to see which schools to close to save more money.

By 2011, Linda Lingle plans to start in closing schools. If schools are closed down, then where would our students go? And it’s hard for our ‘ohana on the five islands that are being studied. They have been talking about closing down small schools and the ones that are not in use. I understand that closing the schools that are not in use is reasonable, but really do we need to close down the one that are in use? With closing these schools on the islands, they would save millions of dollars from the billions that they have in the $2.4 billion that the state had for the year budget.

I understand that there’s an economic downfall in all of Hawaii. My main concern is that our keiki still are able to receive the education that is needed. My mana‘o is that if they want to close schools down to save money, then shouldn’t they also stop building more businesses and private schools? We can barely make it through these rough times as it is. Our keiki need their education. Our kids need to continue the footsteps of our ancestors and spread the knowledge they learn to the next generations. And with that, they need their education and a place to do their studies.

“Ua ao Hawai‘i ke ‘ōlino nei mālamalama.”
Hawai‘i is enlightened, for the brightness of day is here.—Hawai‘i is in an era of education.

School + education= knowledge, success, degree!