HONOLULU -- Nearly half the children of Board of Education members do not attend the public schools their parents are elected to oversee, KITV 4 News learned.
BOE members send their kids to private schools at about three times the rate of other parents in the state.
There are 13 members of the Board of Education elected to oversee 283 public schools. They direct priorities in a $1.4 billion school budget.
About 43 percent of the children of BOE members graduated from or are enrolled in private school or were schooled at home. The other 57 percent attend or graduated from public schools.
Carol Gabbard home schooled her five children, because she and her husband didn't want them to be taught by strangers.
"We just decided that, hey, we could do this. Because we wanted to make sure that the values that we hold dear are, you know, not undermined by someone who may hold different values," Gabbard said.
Gabbard believes public education is too centered on teaching people how to earn a living, instead of teaching them Christian principles.
"Do you think you can be in touch with what's going on in the public schools even though you have never participated in them in any way?" KITV 4 News reporter
Keoki Kerr asked.
"Yeah, because I have gone around and visited many schools, maybe a third.
I haven't gone to every school, but I've made a real effort the first couple of years to get out to the schools, talk with the teachers, talk with the principals," Gabbard said.
BOE member Shannon Ajifu spent 36 years as a public school teacher, counselor and principal. Her two children left public middle schools to attend private high schools in the 1980s, but not because they distrusted public schools.
"In terms of the course offerings, in terms of the schooling that my children were getting, I was pleased. I have no problem with that," Ajifu said.
Ajifu said her husband was a public school principal next door to her kids' public school in Kailua, and she taught at public schools in Moanalua, so private schools were the answer.
"All I wanted for my children was some degree of privacy. So they wouldn't be near their mother or near their father," Ajifu said.
"It was a really, really hard decision," BOE member Laura Thielen said.
Thielen has a younger child in public school, and an older child at Punahou.
"I just don't think our public education system in Hawaii educates kids to the level that they can be educated and where we as a state need them to be educated," Thielen said.
| Board of Education Children in School Survey |
| Board member |
Number of children: |
Type of School: |
| Shannon Ajifu |
2 |
2 Private |
| Lex Brodie |
4 |
1 Private
3 Public |
| Mary J. Cochran |
2 |
2 Public |
| Carol Gabbard |
5 |
5 Home school |
| Sherwood Hara |
1 |
1 Private |
| Breene Harimoto |
3 |
3 Public |
| Karen Knudsen |
2 |
2 Public |
| Denise Matsumoto |
1 |
1 Public |
| Shirley A. Robinson |
2 |
2 Private |
| Laura H. Thielen |
2 |
1 Public
1 Private |
| Garrett Toguchi |
0 |
0 |
| Herbert S. Watanabe |
4 |
4 Public |
| Randall M. L. Yee |
2 |
1 Public |
Copyright 2003 by
TheHawaiiChannel.com
All rights reserved.
This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
E-MAIL:
PHONE:
