Preschool fears
cuts from Bush
education budget

Native Hawaiian schools face
a loss of 40% in federal funds

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By Janis L. Magin
Associated Press

Parents of preschool children enrolled in a program that gives them homework assignments to complete together are sure to be disappointed by President Bush's proposed budget for Native Hawaiian education, the school's director said yesterday.

Keiki O Ka Aina Preschool is one of many Hawaii schools that stand to lose next year under the president's proposed education budget, which cuts funding for Native Hawaiian education programs by 40 percent from the current level.

The Oahu preschool, which serves 500 children in parent-child participation programs around the island, receives 100 percent of its funding from the federal grants.

If funding is cut, services will suffer, said program director Momi Durand.

"There's going to be a lot of sad parents," she said. "When they start, people come. So few people miss every week."

Under the president's spending plan submitted to Congress, education for Native Hawaiians would receive $18 million for fiscal year 2003, 40 percent less than the $30 million the programs are to receive this year.

U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), author of the 1988 Native Hawaiian Education Act, is unhappy with the president's request, said Inouye spokes-woman Sandi Skousen. Inouye said he will work to try to bring it up to last year's level, she said.

Keiki O Ka Aina received $683,794 for the current fiscal year, which began Oct. 1, according to Inouye's office. Coupled with a concurrent grant, the 6-year-old program has a budget of $800,000 for this year, a figure Durand hopes will rise to $900,000 next year.

The most expensive component of the program is one that provides home instruction for parents of preschool children to prepare them for kindergarten and standardized tests in the third grade, Durand said.

"We send homework home with parents to do with their children," she said.

A Hawaiian charter school on the Big Island also would lose money, but the situation for Kanu O Ka Aina is not so dire.

"We try not to depend solely on federal funds," said Ku Kahakalau, the Waimea public school's director. "We always make sure the federal funding either supplements or initiates a program."

Kanu O Ka Aina, which has 120 students, is part a network with 12 other Hawaii charter schools that have a total of 700 students statewide, she said.

"At the same time, there are some really innovative things happening in Hawaii and unless we get some money from the federal side, it's going to be really hard to sustain those," Kahakalau said. "For the first time in Hawaiian communities we're creating these culturally driven models that are working for these students."

The federal money also is used for programs at the University of Hawaii and at the community colleges on Oahu, Kauai, Maui and the Big Island

"We're disappointed in the president's budget proposal in this area," said Michael Rota, vice chancellor for academic affairs for the University of Hawaii community colleges. "We've worked hard as community colleges over the past 10 years, with support from organizations such as Alu Like, on the enrollment and retention of Hawaiian students so that they are now at 17 percent of enrollment, up from 10 percent."