Anyone who has ever chaperoned even a simple field trip to the zoo knows that it’s a lot of extra work overseeing children off campus. Hawaii schoolteachers who escort groups of students to the continental United States or foreign destinations do so because they are committed to expanding students’ intellectual and cultural horizons — an especially important consideration in geographically isolated Hawaii — not because they are itching for a free vacation.
Moreover, these trips, which usually occur over spring or summer breaks, are not vacations for the teachers. The chaperones work the whole time, responsible for students 24 hours a day for the duration of the trip.
The educational benefits are unquestioned. A youngster who gazes upon the Statue of Liberty, in New York City, or traces the steps of Boston’s Freedom Trail, for example, experiences American history in a way that no textbook or online video can match.
Companies that specialize in educational travel, whether with a history, math, science or arts focus, provide a convenient option for students who might not otherwise get to go — taking care of all manner of logistics and sometimes promoting group fundraising necessary for students whose parents can’t foot the bill.
Organizing the trips by school means that students will travel with their friends and classmates, or with extracurricular groups, as in the case of band trips, which are a common occurrence. Parents sending their children off on these adventures have peace of mind because trusted teachers are going along.
The students pay a set per-trip fee that includes travel, lodging, most meals and all entry fees for museums and other attractions on the itinerary. The teachers’ travel costs are covered by the tour company.
Recent advice from state Ethics Commission attorneys calls this whole system into question, signaling the potential demise of an important educational travel opportunity for hundreds, even thousands, of Hawaii public school students every year.
Ethics officials say public-school educators who accept free travel, stipends or other benefits offered by travel companies in exchange for organizing, promoting and chaperoning trips by their students violate state law that prohibits state employees from accepting gifts given to influence or reward their official actions. The directive was prompted by a history tour to New York and Boston for King Intermediate School eighth-graders over spring break, organized and chaperoned by teachers at that school, as in years past.
Teachers throughout the islands were upset by the directive, understandably insulted by the implication that they would urge students to travel not because of the educational value but because they want to travel themselves. Some spoke up on social media and elsewhere to emphasize that when they chaperone students during school breaks, they give up their own free time with their families to advance their students’ learning. The idea that they should pay for that privilege doesn’t fly.
Likewise, schools should not pay for the teachers to chaperone, unless the outing is an official school function required of all students in a certain grade level or curricular or extracurricular group. Optional educational tours don’t qualify on those grounds.
A better solution is to allow the travel companies to pay the teacher-chaperones’ direct travel costs, but to eliminate any stipend, "points" for future travel and other perks that seem more like inducements than fair compensation for the work of chaperoning the trip. Furthermore, the state Department of Education should refine the rules for organizing such trips, requiring that schools compare prices for similar itineraries among several reputable educational travel companies, open up the planning process so that all interested and qualified teachers eventually have the opportunity to escort a trip should they choose to, and involve all stakeholders in discussions about potential destinations. Such transparency would alleviate ethical concerns and ensure that travelers get the best deal.
The main goal is to keep Hawaii students on the go, expanding their educational horizons. That won’t happen unless teachers are there along with them.
