Big Isle literacy program
threatened with closure

The private effort has seen its
funds dry up in the last two years

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By Rod Thompson
rthompson@starbulletin.com

HILO >> When Peter Pauole was in elementary school on Oahu, a teacher asked him to read a story about Peter Rabbit. Pauole could not even read the title, although his own first name was in it.

His teacher called him stupid and hit him.

Pauole, 53, spent most of his life hiding the fact that he could not read or write. Four years ago that changed, and Pauole is now reading a textbook on world history.

Pauole and more than 600 other former adult illiterates in East Hawaii thank the private, nonprofit Computer-Assisted Learning Center at the Hilo public library for their success. But the program, which has been funded mostly by private foundations, is broke, operating on borrowed money that runs out in two weeks.

Program manager Kit Holz is unsure whether the program, which began in 1991, will close.

She laid off two of the four paid staff. The remaining two, including herself, went from full time to part time, although Holz volunteers nearly as much time as she is paid for.

The word "computer" is in the program name, but the machines are secondary to the 30 or so volunteers who tutor. Somebody else has to do administration.

"We don't want to close, but how do we maintain the program without (paid) staff?" Holz asked. "Volunteers will not do the essential work of running the program," she said.

Foundations are not eager to donate to adult literacy programs, preferring instead other causes, such as children or the environment, she said.

Yet a 1989 state study found half of adults in East Hawaii were illiterate or "function with difficulty" in reading.

Some, like Pauole, have dyslexia. Pauole explained that small words like "me" and "tree" are the ones that give him trouble. His brain turns them around so they look like "em" and "eert."

Since those made no sense, sentences made no sense until the program taught Pauole how to deal with his brain's tricks, he said.

Holz's funding has gone from $85,000 two years ago to $20,000 last year to borrowed money this year.

Holz said she is not necessarily looking for huge sums.

"We have a lot of little things going," she said. "They haven't jelled. There's no light at the end of the tunnel yet."