Private schools As the last of Hawaii's children start the new school year tomorrow, a greater percentage of them will be doing so in private schools than their mainland peers.
gaining in isles
Census shows Hawaii has the
highest ratio of private-school
kids among the 50 statesBy Jean Christensen
Associated PressAn Associated Press analysis of estimates from 2000 supplemental Census Bureau surveys shows Hawaii has the highest percentage of K-12 private school enrollment among the 50 states.
In Hawaii, slightly under one in five students is enrolled in a private school, a rate surpassed only by that of Washington, D.C.
Hawaii climbed from fourth place behind Delaware, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C., in an analysis of similar data from the 1990 Census.
Local educators say it's not clear whether the jump had more to do with general population trends than changing attitudes about public or private education in Hawaii.
While K-12 public school enrollment declined from about 189,000 to 183,000 in the past five years -- partly a function of slowed population growth -- private school enrollment remained relatively steady at about 35,000.
The Census estimates put Hawaii's public school population at 180,408 and its private school population at 42,298. Although the figures are based on survey results and differ from the hard data available from the state and private schools, experts say the responses are useful for examining educational trends.
Either way, both hard data and estimates point to a strong tradition of private education in Hawaii that observers say has as much, if not more, to do with the islands' unique history, culture and institutions than concerns about the quality of the nation's only statewide public school system.
"It's a thriving community," said Robert M. Witt, executive director of the Hawaii Association of Independent Schools, who counts 125 private schools in Hawaii. "It's a community that I think contributes in a major way to the well-being of our state."
Such thinking isn't new.
In his 1940 book, "A Century of Public Education in Hawaii," author Benjamin Wist wrote: "Independent or private school ventures in Hawaii have been numerous; and it is doubtful whether any other community of similar size, now under the American flag, has fostered so many of such schools or has enrolled in them so large a proportion of pupil population."
"In the social-economic history of no other American area perhaps has the private school played so significant a role," Wist wrote.
Hawaii -- the 42nd most populous state with 1.2 million residents -- is home to two of the nation's largest private K-12 institutions, Punahou School and Kamehameha Schools. Each has roots dating back more than a century and current enrollments of about 3,700.
Their histories, and those of countless smaller schools, reflect the high value that was placed on education by both Christian missionaries and Hawaiian royalty in the 19th century, said Bonnie Judd, Punahou's director of communications.
"Missionaries were so welcome because they were willing to teach reading and writing," Judd said.
The first Western contact in Hawaii occurred 63 years before Punahou's founding in 1841, and the monarchy realized that written language was "part of the way the merchants and the businessmen kept the control," she said.
The school was founded on land given to the Bingham missionary family at the suggestion of Queen Kaahumanu in 1829, and began admitting students of all races and religions in 1851, the Punahou Web site notes. While Punahou is now nonsectarian, its Christian traditions continue, Judd said.
Kamehameha Schools was established by the 1884 will of Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop, the last direct descendant of Kamehameha I and heir to the vast Kamehameha lands, for children of Hawaiian ancestry.
In some cases, private schools in the past served as "racial enclaves, economic enclaves, to keep kids from mixing with certain classes or categories of youngsters," said Joan Husted, executive director of the Hawaii State Teachers Association, which represents about 13,000 public school teachers.
Witt said Hawaii's private schools have evolved into multicultural and affordable institutions, with a strong emphasis on financial aid for students in need.
There remains, however, "a mystique or aura in this community that only private schools could give you quality of education," Husted said.
"Our frustration is it's self-defeating," she said. "As long as people continue to withdraw their kids out of public education and send them on to private schools because they believe we can't educate them, we'll never be able to prove we can educate them."
Punahou may count AOL Time Warner Inc. chairman Steve Case among its illustrious alumni. But Husted noted that graduates of Hawaii's public school system include Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eric Shinseki, a Kauai native, and the late astronaut Ellison Onizuka, a Big Island native who died aboard the space shuttle Challenger in 1986.
The statewide strike by public schoolteachers in April cast a spotlight on Hawaii's unique public education system, but Husted said she does not expect it to damage the reputation of public schools.
"The majority of parents believe that there are very, very good teachers in our schools and they're working very hard against some really big obstacles," she said.
Greg Knudsen, spokesman for the state Department of Education, said surveys this year show attitudes toward public education have improved both in Hawaii and nationally, particularly among parents whose children attend public schools.
On the Net:
Census 2000 Supplementary Survey: http://factfinder.census.gov