Hundreds turned out to support students, fight against dismantling the U.S. DOE
Posted: February 12, 2025
Hawaiʻi State Teachers Association leaders joined hundreds of educators, parents, students, and elected officials at a rally Wednesday afternoon to lobby members of Congress and stand up for students by fighting against the effort to dismantle the Department of Education, pass universal vouchers and cut vital services Hawaiʻi students depend on in their public schools.
The rally comes at a pivotal moment, as the Trump administration tries to advance policies that would eliminate essential support and protections for students, increase class sizes, and divert funds away from public schools in Hawaiʻi and across the country.
“The federal funds that are used to support our keiki would be tossed away, tossing those keiki to the side,” said HSTA President Osa Tui, Jr.
“Our teachers are going to do everything in our power to make sure that our keiki have what they need. We’re already underfunded as it is. So it’s not like we don’t know how to make do with very little, but this is going to be drastic cuts to the point where you will lose positions,” added Tui, who participated in the rally along with other HSTA leaders.
“A lot of our schools are Title 1, that comes with positions and bodies to help with the support. If that money disappears, we don’t know what’s going to happen because when you lose a position, it’s really scary,” he said.
Aaron Kubo, a social studies teacher at Hilo intermediate who serves as HSTA’s NEA Director, attended the rally in D.C. in person on Wednesday.
“As a classroom teacher, hearing that they the federal government wants to take away Title 1 funding, which is meant to bridge the gap between our neediest populations and help raise them up, you know, and to hear that they want to cut those services and to cut special education services and funds that actually help all of our students is unfortunate and disgraceful to be honest,” Kubo said.
“We heard from many folks out there and shared the same message. We want to have some hope rather than despair that we want to make a change and we don’t want to have our kids be the targets of what’s happening, and be the collateral damage that’s going to happen if and when these cuts occur,” he added.
At a news conference, HSTA leaders who were in D.C. for the rally spoke about how cuts to the department will result in overcrowded classrooms, fewer resources for vulnerable students, a reduction of services for students with disabilities, among other harmful effects on Hawaiʻi’s keiki.
How federal budget cuts will affect Hawaiʻi’s keiki
Students across Hawaiʻi benefit from programs run by the U.S. Department of Education, especially lower-income students in rural, suburban, and urban communities, students who qualify for federal grants or loans to receive career training or attend 2- and 4-year colleges, and students with disabilities.
In Hawaiʻi, these proposed cuts would directly affect local schools, impacting funding, educational opportunities, and support systems for students who rely on vital services.
The Hawaiʻi State Department of Education receives nearly 11% of its annual funding from the federal government.
The U.S. DOE provides Hawaiʻi nearly $52 million a year in Title 1 funding, helping more than 96,000 of our most vulnerable students with vital funding to hire teachers and support staff. Losing federal dollars would further exacerbate the educator shortages plaguing Hawaiʻi public schools, causing students’ class sizes to balloon.
The federal education department also supports almost 20,000 Hawaiʻi students with special needs with nearly $38 million in funding every year.
The U.S. DOE also provides our state $500,000 annually to help educate homeless youth.
“If we lose these funds to help our special needs students, then they are going to be less prepared to deal with the issues that will come up in their lives when they leave the public school system. And we know that when kids are not prepared for the next step in life, that they are going to have a harder time and possibly more likely fall through the cracks than they already are. We have a problem with that already as it is, and we don’t want to exacerbate that problem,” said Tui, the HSTA president.
On Thursday, Linda McMahon is scheduled to appear before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on Thursday, Feb. 13 at 5 a.m. HST, the first hurdle in her cabinet nomination process. Her policies are seen by many as part of an extreme agenda to dismantle public education and attack students’ rights.
McMahon would arrive to the post with one of the thinnest track records in education of any secretary since the department was created in 1979, The Washington Post reported. Her experience and public positions come from her home state of Connecticut: a short stint on the state Board of Education, years as a trustee of Sacred Heart University in Fairfield and two unsuccessful Senate campaigns.
McMahon spent most of her career running World Wrestling Entertainment with her husband, Vince McMahon.
While she had earned a teaching certificate in college, she never taught (and inaccurately claimed on her application for the school board position to have an education degree), the Washington Post reported. Rather, her experience was in business.
First photo from left: HSTA President Osa Tui, Jr., HSTA Government Relations Chair Hope Pualani McKeen, and HSTA NEA Director Aaron Kubo; Second photo from left: HSTA Executive Director Ann Mahi, HSTA President Osa Tui, Jr., HSTA Deputy Executive Director Andrea Eshelman and HSTA Government Relations Chair Hope Pualani McKeen.