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Advocacy group announces long-term vision for equitable schooling, 2018 campaign goals to advance access, choice
Honolulu, Hawaii – Six months after launching HawaiiKidsCAN: The Hawaii Campaign for Achievement Now, Founding Executive Director David Miyashiro has announced the organization’s 2018 legislative goals to ensure high-quality education for all Hawaii students, through initiatives that include expanded school choice, improved access to computer science training for educators and support for dual-language immersion programs in public schools.
As the framework for these goals, HawaiiKidsCAN has also produced The Future of Education in Hawaii, a roadmap to equitable schooling that begins with a clear, candid assessment of where Hawaii stands today against key markers of excellence. This roadmap is designed to provide students, policymakers and advocates with a vision for positive, future-oriented change.
“Hawaii’s education landscape is in a period of significant change,” said Miyashiro, a former Hawaii public school special education teacher. “This document is the product of conversations with hundreds of people across our education system, as well as a close study of exciting developments and major state plans impacting Hawaii’s schools.”
We encourage members of the media to explore the document, and we encourage community members to join our online mailing list for announcements about upcoming public workshops.
The Future of Education in Hawaii provides a thoughtful set of guiding values and measures of success that will inform HawaiiKidsCAN, and its growing network of partners, on what works best for our students.
To launch our journey into the future, we have identified four key policy goals for 2018:
- Revise the state Board of Education policy to allow computer science courses to count toward mandatory graduation credits for math or science.
- Pass legislation that enables all high schools to offer computer science professional development to teachers.
- Pass legislation to appropriate $10 million to support charter schools for facilities projects and rent assistance.
- Work with coalition members to create the outline of a pilot fund that will enable public schools to apply for dual-language immersion program startup support through the Department of Education.
More information about our 2018 campaign goals, and how you can help us advocate for Hawaii’s children, can be found at HawaiiKidsCAN.org.