Hawaiian students, including part-Hawaiian students, are underachieving and failing at alarming rates. This is nothing new and can be seen at virtually every school in the state. Hawaiian students are also overrepresented in truancy, disciplinary issues, special education and dropouts. This has been happening year after year, to the tune of thousands of students. While we can blame and dismiss the Hawaiians — and let’s face it, we have — at what point do we accept that there is something wrong with a system that allows failure of this magnitude to continue?

There was recently a news story in which the Office of Hawaiian Affairs reported statistics showing the overrepresentation of Hawaiians caught up in the criminal justice system. Could this be because we, the state, are failing to provide adequate educational opportunities to our Hawaiian students, leaving them undereducated as children and facing a lifetime of limited economic opportunities as adults? Yes, that is exactly what we have been doing.

This must end! We must take a hard look at every aspect of education in Hawaii today and nothing should be out of bounds. We need to ask why we don’t even monitor what is happening with the children of our host culture. No Child Left Behind mandates looking at student achievement, but then lumps Hawaiians into a broad category called "Asian and Pacific Islanders." This buries the statistical reality from view. And beyond that: Is this all Hawaiians are to us and to the state, just another ethnic group from Asia and the Pacific? No! Hawaiians are Hawaii and it’s time we respect that.

We have accepted this situation for too long. Are we numb or do we just not care? Are the non-Hawaiians with competitive cultural backgrounds content to get theirs and run? Does the fact that the Department of Education is largely made up of Caucasians and Japanese have something to do with the fact that Caucasian and Japanese children seem to do just fine? Yes, I am saying that we need to look at ourselves in the mirror and ask, "Are we racially biased?" Do we dismiss our Hawaiian students’ poor achievement because we expect less than we do for other students? Our perennial acceptance of the continued failure answers that question.

So what should we do? Not more of the same, that’s for sure. The college preparatory model has not worked for the majority of our Hawaiian youth. Hawaii needs to create a system that respects and honors what we know: that Hawaiian students are doers, not sitters, with a love of and talent for hands-on activities. Let’s create a system which plays to their strengths and rewards them, instead of beating them down for "their" deficiencies in a system that has been a cultural mismatch from the beginning.

Let’s go "back to the future": We should bring back vocational education in Hawaii’s high schools, big time. Bring back auto shop, construction classes, business tech, agriculture/aquaculture and natural resources programs, culinary arts, health services, human services — and the list goes on. These vocational pathways can easily be connected to crafts which Hawaiians of old were expert in. We can make connections across time and culture that are exactly what our students need to feel that their education is truly relevant to their lives. Let’s teach usable basic math, English communication and job skills, which will provide students with what they need to be effective in post-high school life.

Better education will equal a better life for our Hawaiian students. And make no mistake: The things mentioned above will also help the majority of the students growing up in Hawaii, Hawaiian and non-Hawaiian alike. There is no "down side" to helping the Hawaiian side of our island ohana. Let’s malama pono!