‘Education is a target—we have to push back’
Posted: September 25, 2025
Hawaiʻi State Teachers Association President Osa Tui, Jr. warned that public education is under attack during a community forum Friday, citing threats to schools, teachers, and unions under the Trump administration.
Friday’s forum was co-sponsored by Hawai’i J20+, Indivisible Hawai’i Statewide Network, and the Harris United Methodist Church.
Tui served on a panel alongside John Goldberg Hiller, Professor of Political Science at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, and Randy Iwase, former Hawaiʻi state senator, to discuss President Donald Trump’s full-scale attack on education.
Watch: United In Defense of Education forum
Since taking office in January, Trump gutted the U.S. Department of Education, illegally withheld funds from public schools targeting students with disabilities and English language learners, allowed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to raid public schools, and detained non-citizen student activists in ICE jails.
Public education ‘a huge target’
While speaking during the forum, Tui acknowledged the very real threat public education faces, and told attendees that Project 2025 predicted what Trump’s second presidency would be like.
“We thought that many of our institutions and the things that we have stood up with would protect us. We’ve seen that the Congress and the Supreme Court have just given way to the executive and their willingness to go above and beyond anything that’s been done before,” Tui said.
Tui pointed out that public education and unions are “a huge target to be harassed and removed, because we do have voices that rise up and speak to power, and speak to those who have money interests. And while we may not have lots of money, we have lots of voices. And it is the power of the people, and we try to harness that power and come together.”
Hawaiʻi ‘not immune from the things that are happening on the continent’
The Trump administration has tried to limit what teachers can teach and has withheld federal funding from schools. These actions threaten both truth and school autonomy.
“We can’t have the teaching of truth. We have to say things like, there were positive outcomes in slavery and, you know, just ridiculous things like that, that governments are telling their teachers what to say, what they have to do, they have to put away rainbow flags,” Tui said.
He told the story of a Hawaʻii state lawmaker who raised concerns about pride flags on display at ‘Ewa Makai Middle School on his social media channels in 2023.
State Rep. Elijah Pierick (R, Royal Kunia, Village Park, Honouliuli, Hoʻopili, and part of Waipahu) faced backlash for his statements from fellow Republican, state Sen. Kurt Fevella, who represents ‘Ewa Beach, Ocean Pointe, ‘Ewa by Gentry, Iroquois Point, and a portion of ‘Ewa Villages’ in the Senate.
“We’re not immune from the things that are happening on the continent,” Tui said.
He also spoke about the $33 million in funding that was going to be withheld for migrant students and English language learner students in Hawaiʻi. “These are the ones who are struggling, who need help the most,” he said.
“It’s an attack on education, because they just don’t want people to know things. The less you know, the more you can be manipulated. And we want to teach our students that, ‘How do you actually see what you’re reading and try and find the truth?’”
Union power to push back
When a student attendee asked the panel how to fight back against dangerous and extreme right-wing agendas, Tui encouraged folks, first and foremost, to join their union.
“We as a union, I will say, we’re standing up. We’re saying no. We believe in diversity, equity and inclusion. We believe in teaching the truth, and we want to promote it,” he said.
He admitted that not all HSTA members agree with the union’s stance on key issues. “I have to tell my members that we are political, because we have to be but we don’t have to be partisan. There are certainly some Democrats and Republicans who are of the mindset that we want to support and save public education.”
He continued, “Education is a target, and so we have to be vigilant. We’re targets even in our classrooms […] We have to make sure that we push back. And so it is the power of unions and coming together.”