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Not all public schools are horrible. Mililani, Nuuanu and virtually all of East Honolulu has good public schools.
If parents can't afford a private school tuition for their children they can either buy or rent a home in a neighborhood with good schools.
This isn't any different from anywhere else in the country.
You kinda proved my point. Bad schools are the norm, and good schools the exception.
I went to public school on the mainland, and it was a lot different.
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You kinda proved my point. Bad schools are the norm, and good schools the exception.
I went to public school on the mainland, and it was a lot different.
Not really. CDF posters generally beat the same old drum... "all public schools here are terrible and you need to go to a private school for a good education".
Which is wrong. Just like any other place in the US, you need to choose to reside in a neighborhood with affluent demographics if you want the best public education. It's not so much that the schools are terrible as it is the parents not giving a flying rats behind about their children's education.
And no, just because a home in a neighborhood costs $800K does not mean it will be in a district with high-performing schools. Expensive single family homes exist in terrible school districts across the island. You need to live in neighborhoods with SMALL families (i.e. less children and less adults living in each household) and above average incomes. Also, places like Mililani have high concentrations of ethnic backgrounds that culturally put a high emphasis on education (e.g. Japanese).
If middle-income parents put enough priority in their children's education, they will either buy/rent a home, even a tiny, antiquated modest beater or a small questionably legal "home" attached to a home... to get their children into schools that will give them the best shot at a good education.
Having said all that... I admit our politicians do little to support our education system. If we directed even a fraction of the .5% GET into our school system (instead of the entirely useless rail system) and increased teacher salaries, we would attract better talent and provide for a better overall education system. There is an ungodly amount of taxpayer money being sucked from locals and visitors... the way the elected powers that be appropriate those monies is disgusting. The priorities in this state are an absolute joke.
Many homes in Mililani, especially those of the older subdivision, have both yards on the front and back. In fact, some houses are so secluded that I have heard some stories about a Mililani house completely hollowed out by burglar when the owner was on vacation.
Living in Mililani and working in Kapolei is a good idea. It is against the traffic in rush hour and Mililani is much cooler than Kapolei. Mililani Mauka High School is okay. Maggie Q, who appeared in some CBS thriller series, attended that school. But if you are serious about your kid's education, I also recommend them to attend private school.
Public School is not only related to funding. Attitudes of teachers, parents and students are all critical. In teacher-parent conference held in private school, it is always over-attended. Both parents usually came to attend, in some cases, even grandparents attended too.
In public school, you are lucky if 1/4 of the parents showed up.
If we directed even a fraction of the .5% GET into our school system (instead of the entirely useless rail system) and increased teacher salaries, we would attract better talent and provide for a better overall education system. There is an ungodly amount of taxpayer money being sucked from locals and visitors... the way the elected powers that be appropriate those monies is disgusting. The priorities in this state are an absolute joke.
Actually Hawaii's teachers are paid okay. In fact, after their strike during Lingle's administration, they have since always got a better deal than other units in the contract negotiation.
Moreover, public school teachers are paid better, benefits included, than private school teachers.
Was there a strike during the Lingle adminstration.... they had furlough Friday, but I don't remember a strike.
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Was there a strike during the Lingle adminstration.... they had furlough Friday, but I don't remember a strike.
In scheduling 17 days furlough in the 2009 school year, the public school teachers were waging a de facto strike -- making everybody hurt, students and parents included.
The teachers didn't want the furlough.... that was done by the administration for budget reasons.
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Actually Hawaii's teachers are paid okay. In fact, after their strike during Lingle's administration, they have since always got a better deal than other units in the contract negotiation.
Moreover, public school teachers are paid better, benefits included, than private school teachers.
Considering the massive and inordinate amount of tax money (compared to other states) that flows into our government coffers, they are FAR underpaid.
Education has never been a priority for the bureaucrat losers that run the show here. Our policy makers bank on tourists and the "never ending" flow of rich outsiders moving here to retire, live part time etc to keep our coffers full.
Private school teachers usually get one child to attend tuition-free... and additional children attend with significantly discounted tuition. Also, private school teachers while having to adhere to a higher standard in terms of delivered curriculum have it (comparatively) easy, IMO. It's far more difficult to teach in an environment where half the students in the classroom receive taxpayer subsidized breakfast and lunch and come from non-english speaking families... then to teach a bunch of privileged mostly well-behaved children that are influenced by educated, affluent parents that put education at the top of their priority list.
My opinion is that we should dump many hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue received through TAT and GET into developing a true STEM hub attracting many more engineers, scientists, researchers, physicians, etc to our state. The Cancer Center is a joke. In 20-30 years, half of the world's jobs will be lost to automation and mechanization. The smartest and most talented people in the world want to live in a place like Hawaii. We should prepare the state to be a true incubator of STEM talent rather than depend on tourism and military (two very fragile and potentially fickle industries) to keep us humming along.
I live smack dab in the middle of the urban core of Honolulu and I would never ever think of moving. This so called "traffic" you speak of... doesn't bother me one bit as I never have the need to drive more than a handful of miles per day. Further, if I don't want to deal with finding parking or plan to have a few drinks, Uber and Lyft are at my driveway within 3-4 mins of clicking my phone screen. Or I can hope on my bike. Being trapped in a ginormous home far from society is downright depressing to me. But I can fully respect why people want to live away from it all. To each his own.
But the main reason why I'm responding to your post... I'm curious as to how one can buy an almost new 3,800 SF home (w/4 bathrooms) for $250,000 in Hawaii? Clearly, the previous owner who built the home incurred a significant loss. It's great that you got a good deal but I would not want to live in an area where home prices are so volatile (or depressed) that homeowners could potentially end up taking such a horrific bath on their investment.
Oops! That was a typo, I meant under $350,000. The previous owner bought the house at the highest point of the housing boom and lost out with a huge mortgage. He had another house also, and he was trying to avoid foreclosure. So he offered me a good deal if I could close on the house in three weeks! It took everyone of those days to get the real estate papers done, but we did it!
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