Education Shake-Up: Hawaii braces for federal DOE dismantle

HONOLULU (KHON2) — Hawaii’s public schools have relied on federal support for everything from special education to school lunches. With the Department of Education now being dismantled, state officials are preparing for what could be major changes.

“We know for our state, $300 million comes from the federal government year over year so that accounts for 11% of the total budget. That is too much for us to absorb that cost, so we’re doing things like holding funds back seeing in ways we can fill those gaps,” said state Rep. Justin Woodson, chair of House Committee on Education.

Ironically, it’s Education Week at the state capitol and today, the State Superintendent was speaking with Hawaii Senator Mazie Hirono about what needs to be done to protect Hawaii’s education budget.

State Superintendent Keith Hayashi said while no programs have been impacted yet, they’ll stay focused on the needs in the classrooms as they monitor developments.

“We’ll continue to do that work together with our schools, with our communities, to be sure that we’re able to provide the best education possible. That’s definitely a commitment from the Hawaii State Department of Education as we move forward together,” said Keith Hayashi.

At the federal level, all four Hawaii congressional members condemned the Trump administration’s actions against the education department and they’ve vowed to push back.

“Well the first thing is that we can do our best to stop him from preventing these funds to come to our state, and that requires a lawsuit. And that is happening. But at the same time, we need to establish some priorities and I hope the legislature will come back into special session if they have to, to shore up the gaps in education support,” said Hawaii Senator Mazie Hirono.

According to a news release from Congressman Ed Case, it is estimated $193.8 million in federal funding that provides services to Hawaii schools including Title 1, after-school programs and programs to support military families would be impacted, while another $22.3 million would be cut to services supporting state DOE workers.

In a statement, Case called President Trump’s effort to abolish the USDOE as “one of the broadest and deepest and outright shortsighted and heartless of many attacks on the foundation of our society to date.”