Column: More ways to support teachers besides just increasing salaries

As an education think tank that promotes empowerment and innovation in public schools, the Education Institute of Hawaii (EIH) applauds the state Department of Education (DOE), Board of Education (BOE) and Gov. David Ige for their proposal of extra pay for teachers in special education, Hawaiian language immersion programs and remote geographic locations. This is a positive step forward in addressing the state’s chronic teacher shortage.

Nearly 50% of teachers in Hawaii leave DOE schools within five years. The issue is complex, and the factors leading to a teacher’s decision to leave goes deeper than salary alone.

Pay is a key part of the problem, but other persistent issues that contribute to the teacher shortage include overall lack of community support for our public schools, the lack of teacher support from administrators, student discipline, the cultural alienation of teachers new to Hawaii, and the geographic distance between a teacher and their family on the mainland.

Additional factors contributing to the teacher shortage include the systemwide focus on testing rather than learning, and a nationwide decline in the number of college graduates pursuing teaching careers.

These reasons come from a wide variety of sources, including national studies and repeated comments from teachers to the DOE and the Hawaii State Teachers Association (HSTA). This data has been collected in HSTA surveys and also is the result of the HSTA’s work to acclimate new employees working in Waianae and Nanakuli. Unfortunately, the DOE does not do routine exit interviews.

As an organization comprising current and retired teachers and principals, EIH is passionate about addressing this important issue and is working on initiatives to solve the teacher retention problem. But we cannot do it alone. We urge everyone to join us in supporting Hawaii’s public schools as a community.

We believe there are solutions to complement the DOE, BOE and HSTA efforts that require low investment and yield strong results, including:

>> Empower schools to allow teachers the ability to control their teaching environment.

>> Provide incentives to hire more local teachers as they graduate from college.

>> Free administrators from state or complex-directed tasks to allow them to dedicate their time to supporting teachers.

>> Give teachers the freedom to teach and not spend their valuable time on administrative tasks better done by others.

>> Direct all DOE resources to the schools.

>> Provide access to affordable housing through subsidies or the creation of teacher housing.

>> Conduct publicly available exit interviews with teachers to better understand their challenges and thereby develop solutions.

>> Support teachers by providing deep discount programs from local businesses.

>> Encourage the media to highlight school successes.

We are working toward finding feasible solutions to the teacher shortage and helping the DOE achieve its teacher retention goals. One 2020 EIH project is to understand the issue from the teachers’ perspective by conducting focus groups and then developing action steps that can be implemented through our existing school systems.

We believe that by working together as a community, thoroughly understanding the core issues and developing a collaborative plan, we can improve Hawaii’s public schools by recruiting and retaining highly qualified teachers who will provide the best possible education for our children.

Ray L’Heureux is chairman/president and Joan Husted is vice president of the Education Institute of Hawaii.