I am moving to Hawaii in June... (Honolulu: day care, homes)

[jenirv]

and trying to get some info on the schools there. My FI is currently stationed at Hickam. He was raised in Hawaii by AF parents, and attended a private school, that is WAY outta our range right now. My son is 6, and will be entering in the first grade when we move. I have read horrible reviews about the schools in Hawaii, and I am concerned. I am just wondering, are the schools that bad, or are these just the reviews of angry parents? Any thing would help at this point. Thanks in advance!

[galitell1]

I am also thinking about a move to hawaii and am very concerned about the school, i have been researching this for quite some time and what I was able to find out was that elementry schools are not as bad as they say they are, but once you move up to middle and high school is where you really need to think twice, and a lot of people save up for the privet school because the public schools are horrible. I don't know what Island you are thinking about moving too, but a good website to check the schools there is the www.goodschools.com it gives you a rating and you can compare it with other schools in the nation. good luck.

[isaackko]

Most of the bases have elementary schools which I think tend to be a little better. Even if he was in school off base, the elementary schools aren't all that bad here. Now, intermediate and high school are a different story.

[armyvet40]

Schools on Oahu. BAD! BAD! BAD! From kindergarden on up! We have been here a year so far and look forward to leaving after this next deployment. When we got here, we found our children were almost 2 years ahead of the school system here. Please keep in mind our kids have been in DODEA schools their entire life.

You will pay for public school buses at around 160 per child per year. There are arounbd 3-4 fundraisers a month as well.

Teachers curse at children. We have found this to be the case for our 3rd and 10th grader. All of your high schools daughter text books were photocopies, and there is never any homework.

We ended up removing 3 children from this school system. I am homeschooling our pre-k and 1st grader. My 3rd grader and 10th grader are attending online classes with Texas Tech Universities school programs online at the cost of over 130 dollars per class.

We just had to tighten our budgets to afford a great education for our kids. Private schools here for high School run 14-18k a year and for grade school run about 4k a year. And that is if you can actually get them in those schools, as they "reserve the right" to only allow hawaiian students. That goes for the charter schools as well.

Their schools are also using title one funds and reading first grants. That alone would be ok, but they use the cheapest resources possible to teach the tests, not teach the kids. That is not working either, as kids in 8th grade are failing miserably meeting basic assesment testing standards for skills in that grade.

We researched for a year before arriving here, and the good schools website is a joke

Had it even halfway been accurate, we would have not PCS's with my husband, but too late now.

[Mililani Gal]

I was educated through the State of Hawaii's educational system (from K to post graduate at University of Hawaii). I know I'm not brilliant and can sometimes feel inferior to some of my friends that are from other states, but that being said. I'm literate, married to my college sweet-heart for 13 years, making a decent living and raising two beautiful, smart girls!

I too am concerned about schools. Here is a link to a survey done by Honolulu Magazine "Grading the Public Schools". Grading the Public Schools - Honolulu Magazine - May 2008 - Hawaii That surveyed teachers and students about their schools, then giving them a grade based on whether a teacher would send their own child to their school, and whether the students wanted to switch to another school.

armyvet40 stated that private schools "reserve the right" to only allow hawaiian students. This is only accurate when it comes to Kamehameha Schools. One of the best on the island, but funded by the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Estates. Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop was a Hawaiian princess and her family is one of the largest land owners in Hawaii, thus, her estate is funding the schooling of native Hawaiian children.

However, as recently brought into the national spotlight, president-elect Barack Obama graduated from Punahou Schools. Again one of the best private schools to send you child. Many of the graduates go onto the best universities, etc. Also a graduate of Punahou is Steve Case, co-founder of AOL.

Another great private school is Iolani. Punahou's rival private school. Sun Yat Sen, a Chinese revolutionary and political leader, attended Iolani Schools.

There are others but mostly based in Honolulu. Maryknoll, Mid-Pacific Institute, etc. Private schools are expensive and we can't afford it, so our plan is to send our kids to elementary then move to the mainland and have them attend a better school system.

Isaackko is correct, elementary schools are pretty good, but middle and high schools are poor. My older daughter just started K and is one of the top kids in class. But she did have 2 years of preschool/day care before starting K. Public schools have K kids that have not had any structured school-type setting mixed in with kids like my daughter. Fundraisers are frequent because again, the schools must provide for those students who families cannot provide supplies.

If interested in private schooling, please look into the schools mentioned. There are many smaller private schools too. Hongwanji Mission School, Soto Academy, Hawaii Baptist Academy, etc. Do a Honolulu, Hawaii, yellow page search for schools, then check out their web pages, request information packets, etc.

Good luck and have a little bit of faith. If you are stationed at Hickam, call the Department of Education Contacting Us, Administration to find out what schools your child would attend then research, or see what it takes to get a geographic exception to send you child to another school nearby that might be better. Moanalua Elementary, Intermediate and High School are currently the best public schools near Hickam AFB.

Good luck!