Second-language education program needs more funding

THE federal government's failure to provide sufficient funds to educate children who have immigrated to Hawaii from the Pacific region places the state at risk for lawsuits and penalties. More critical, however, is that the shortage jeopardizes instruction the children need.

With the Bush administration and Congress unlikely to appropriate more money, the Department of Education is left to rely on Governor Lingle and state lawmakers to increase funds to help students whose lack of English skills hampers their learning.

It would be a wise investment. It would head off possible legal action like the costly 1993 Felix lawsuit that forced the state's hand in educating special needs students. In addition, it will help in meeting student achievement standards of the federal No Child Left Behind law.

For years, the state has struggled with the cost of teaching children who don't speak English well or at all. They make up about 10 percent of the current student population and while enrollment overall is declining, the number of non-English-speaking children is rising.

Increasingly, they come from Pacific nations as treaty permits them to enter the United States freely to live and work.

The federal government is supposed to offset costs, estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars, but in recent years, Hawaii has received only about $10 million annually. That's not enough to cover the education expenses, much less the job-training, health, social and other services states are required to provide.

Many of the children are illiterate in their native languages, have no experience in classrooms and have parents who are similarly unskilled, making the students difficult to teach. However, federal laws demand an equal education for all nevertheless.

As a result, a number of mainland school districts with similar problems have been sued. Though Hawaii has avoided litigation, Lani Kapolulu, who oversees the Honolulu school district's English for Second Language Learners, told the Star-Bulletin's Dan Martin that "If someone sued, they'd have a pretty strong case right now" since the program is under "major strain."

Hawaii cannot hope that luck will continue. A good portion of the state's revenue surplus should be directed toward schools with a healthy share going to programs for non-English speakers.

Kobayashi served state with integrity

A former attorney general and state Supreme Court justice, Bert T. Kobayashi Sr. will be remembered more as a cool-headed mediator who kept Hawaii functioning during several dock strikes. Kobayashi died last Thursday. He was 89.

Gov. John Burns appointed Kobayashi as attorney general in 1962 and offered him the candidacy for lieutenant governor four years later, but Kobayashi declined. Not a politician, Kobayashi preferred handling chores such as mediating labor disputes and breaking the monopolies that had controlled Hawaii during the first half of the last century.

Kobayashi accepted Burns' nomination of him to the Supreme Court, where he served a 10-year term before retiring from the bench. Even as an associate justice, he accepted mediation assignments in the 1970s by Gov. George Ariyoshi, his law partner before Kobayashi's time in public office. He continued to accept such assignments after leaving the high court.

A graduate of McKinley High School, Gettysburg College and Harvard Law School, Kobayashi was effective at what he did because of his qualities of honesty, integrity and compassion. Burns called Kobayashi his administration's "strong right arm," but he served in that role for the entire state.