Gathering Places
Gathering Places
A STUDENT'S PLEA TO LAWMAKERS:
Don’t shortchange
my future again
Editor's note: This commentary was submitted as testimony earlier this month to Sen. Norman Sakamoto, chairman of the Senate Education Committee.Thomas Henry Huxley wrote: "Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not; it is the first lesson that ought to be learned; and however early a man's training begins, it is the lesson that he learns thoroughly."
Education is very important to me and many of my fellow Kalaheo High School students. You lawmakers say that education is important to you, but is it really? If education were so important to the state of Hawaii, then why is it the 45th state in K-12 public education spending, when it is placed fourth in total revenues collected and third in total government spending?
Every year, the Legislature says we have to cut our education budget. And every year the public schools in Hawaii are forced to cut programs that are extremely important to our futures.
I moved to Oahu a little over a year ago from Chicago. I came from GlenBrook South High School, one of the top five schools in Illinois, to maybe one of the worst states, Hawaii, for public education. I am very saddened to say this, but GlenBrook South offered many courses that some of the schools in the islands have not even heard of. Not only that, but I would like to walk through Kalaheo High School and look forward to going to the classrooms, and especially the bathrooms, but that is not possible when our school is falling apart.
If the Legislature cuts the education budget, then that will cause a whole disorder of balance. If the budget cuts happen, that means Kalaheo will lose three teaching positions. Without these teachers, not only will our class sizes increase but our teacher-to-student ratio will ultimately decrease, worse that it has already.
Not only will students be affected by this, but so will the most important people who influence us -- our teachers. The teachers who do decide to stay will have larger class loads, adding to their stress and affecting their health, both physically and mentally. We want our teachers to want to come to work and teach us. Yes, we know we are not always the easiest people to deal with, but we want to succeed and do well in life, just as well as everyone else.
If there is one thing the state needs right now, it is to help prepare my generation with a good and stable educational background so we can go out there and make a difference to Hawaii. Give the students of Hawaii the opportunities to make this state great; give us the money to make our schools better; give us the power to show you. Please don't cut our education budget. That is my simple request.
I hope Hawaii's lawmakers will do the right thing.
Zornitza Koteva, a junior at Kalaheo High School
in Kailua, is a native of Bulgaria.