Furlough Fridays: Taking Away from our Future
Courtesy of Cordelia Xie
December 21, 2009 • Raquelle Pendleton
Filed under Editorials
The Hawaii state government should give to the children of Hawaii, not take away from them.
The global economic crisis that took place this year has taken a toll on everyone, and the children are no exception.
Recently, the Hawaii state government cut public school funds and teachers’ pay in order to improve the economy. Because of these new policies, children are missing 17 Friday school days during the 2009-2010 school year.
Parents have been complaining about the policies created by the government that cause children to miss school educational days.
Mylene Reyes, a parent of two Aikahi Elementary School students, has written several letters to senators and congressmen, complaining about the furloughs at Hawaii public schools.
“The furloughs were ill-planned,” Reyes said, “The Union decided they would implement furloughs and Lingle sided with them, but at least now Lingle is trying to use the 15 million dollars from the Emergency Relief Fund to help public schools, but the Union still won’t budge. This is more like the Union versus Lingle. It’s just very disappointing and upsetting.”
Reyes is aware that the education offered at Hawaii public schools is not considered one of the greatest educations offered, but the addition of furlough days downgrade the opportunities children would receive at public schools.
“The Hawaii Public schools are at the bottom of the totem pole and I am just shocked that the Union would take away instructional days from the kids,” Reyes said.
Although the addition of furloughs has negatively affected the public school system, Reyes has not thought about pulling her children out of public school and sending them to a private one.
“I believe in supporting the public school system,” Reyes said, “and I am lucky to live in Kailua because the elementary schools are good.”
Many parents, like Reyes, and some students, share those common opinions.
My sister Danielle Pendleton, a sixth grader at Ka’elepulu Elementary School, also does not like the addition of furloughs.
“They take out of our learning time because we haven’t done math for five days. It’s messing up everybody’s schedule,” Pendleton said, “We were supposed to have a Spring Concert, but it was cancelled and we don’t have any more fieldtrips, unless it’s educational. It’s just messing everybody up.”
Even though people often say, “the children are our future,” the Hawaii State government still continues to take funds from the schools first in order to help the economy.
I believe that we, as a state, need to join together to get rid of the furloughs so that the children of Hawaii can receive the best education possible.
The government needs to look for a better way to improve the national debt without hurting the children. The children are our future and without them our future ahead looks grim.
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