Kaiali‘i Kahele: Value teachers, leverage land for funds, rental units

Editor’s note: The stakes are high for Hawaii’s people as we choose a new governor this fall. In the spirit of providing information to readers, the Star-Advertiser’s Sunday Insight section asks the main, actively campaigning Democratic gubernatorial candidates — Vicky Cayetano, Josh Green and Kai Kahele — about their detailed strategies for Hawaii’s most urgent and toughest issues.

Their visions will be presented on the last Sunday of each month prior to August’s primary election: today, June 26 and July 31.

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Our public education system is one of the most important institutions in our state. We need great schools to set our keiki up for success wherever they go — but more importantly, to provide them with a solid foundation on which they can build a sustainable, fulfilling life here in Hawaii. Great public schools mean more secure local families, a better and more diversified economy, and greater equity across our communities.

I am a product of Hawaii’s public school system and am proud to have a Bachelor of Science degree in education from the University of Hawaii. Unfortunately, the myriad challenges surrounding our school system have disempowered it from reaching its full potential. Combating these challenges and setting the course for an empowered public school system rests on providing our educators with adequate resources and a recognized respect for the valuable work they contribute.

As governor, a strategic set of policy objectives will guide my approach to improving our public education system. Broadly, these objectives are centered on improving our public education facilities, bolstering state Department of Education (DOE) assets and revenue streams, and increasing compensation and benefits for teachers and staff.

In the past, there have been creative proposals such as allowing the state to tax investment properties for education. While this ultimately failed in the Hawaii Supreme Court, it is this type of creative thinking that we desperately need from leadership in our state.

For example, the DOE could explore proposals that leverage valuable land and facilities assets. These assets could be used to create additional funding streams for education to reduce our public school system’s tax burden. Additional revenue streams to complement funding from the state Legislature would provide the DOE and School Facilities Authority (SFA) with greater ability to improve facilities to ensure our teachers and students can thrive.

Next, the state must find a way to pay teachers a respectable, empowering wage while also ensuring their benefits such as retirement and healthcare are truly competitive. We cannot expect to improve our education system if we are not providing the means for our best and brightest to become educators. The state could also take steps to change the culture around teaching as a profession through targeted recruitment in our schools.

Finally, we could compensate our student teachers by developing a work-study program to offset the costs of postsecondary education. These ideas foster education as a profession, and would provide opportunities for more local kids to stay home in Hawaii to give back to their communities in a meaningful way.

Hawaii’s housing crisis is particularly harmful to the success of our public education system. As governor, I would be an advocate for policies that create workforce targeted housing for our public education professionals. Some housing programs already exist for public educators, particularly in more remote areas of our state such as Ka‘u and Lanai. However, these programs typically only provide housing for a few years. This simply isn’t adequate. The state needs to develop affordable rentals while also incentivizing home ownership through lower interest rates and home loan programs targeted specifically for public educators.

Building workforce targeted housing for our educators rests on the state’s ability to build housing projects quickly. Therefore, we must also streamline the planning and permitting process for vital developments. Doing so will require working with the counties to address the severe backlog of housing development permitting. And at the state level, we should conduct an inventory of land zoning and classifications to determine exactly how much land the state has to meet its objectives for creating affordable housing across the board.

Despite the complexities of improving our public education system, I believe it is the kuleana of the state to create an environment where our educators and students feel empowered across the entire public education system.

We should work with the DOE and SFA to explore creative ways to generate more revenue. We must make the profession as a public educator respectable and attractive within our local communities while improving educator wages and benefits. And we need to close the housing gap so that our teachers can build a sustainable, long-term career in our state. As governor, I will be committed to achieving these strategic policy objectives for our public education system. We owe it to our keiki, communities and to the future of Hawaii.

Kaialiʻi Kahele, Hawaii’s 2nd Congressional District representative, also is a commercial pilot and former state senator.