Hawaiʻi enrolls over 165,000 students in public schools, including public charter schools, in pre-K through 12th grades. With the start of the 2025-26 school year, there is more than the usual new year jitters roiling Hawaiʻi educators, families, and students.

One cannot escape the news around the current federal administration’s efforts to eliminate the congressionally established U.S. Department of Education, whose workforce is being decimated.

Animosity Against DOE Misdirected

It is baffling the animosity towards the U.S. DOE.

The U.S. DOE’s main objectives, which are laudable, are to 1) help low-income students and students with disabilities, 2) provide need-based aid to low-income postsecondary students (through Pell grants) and act as a lender for students to attain postsecondary education, 3) review states’ elementary and secondary education systems for school improvement, 4) collect data on education and foster innovation to improve student success, and 5) enforce civil rights laws.

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It is also one of the smallest federal agencies even prior to the current purge.

Hawaiʻi’s children and families benefit tremendously from U.S. DOE programs. Hawaiʻi receives approximately 11% of its total $2 billion-plus annual education funding from the federal government. Federal Title I funding supports free or reduced-meals at 196 (or 66%) of Hawaii public schools.

Additionally, 24% of Hawaiʻi students receive Pell grants for postsecondary education. With the gutting of the U.S. DOE, it is now unknown if Hawaiʻi will continue to receive the same level of financial support from the federal government or how Hawaii will be able to replace any lost federal funding.

Be Cautious Of H.R.1’s Impacts

Further disrupting the educational system is the recent federal tax and spending bill H.R.1 signed into law on July 4. H.R.1 creates a federal voucher program to subsidize private school tuition for already upper income families while not expanding educational access for lower-income families. In fact, federal tax dollars may support private schools that do not follow the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, disadvantaging children who truly need the extra support.

Equally troubling in H.R.1, if not more so, is altering the Pell grant guidelines by linking eligibility for a loan to students’ earnings and thereby reducing students’ pathway to a postsecondary degree. This could worsen some high-need sectors, such as social work and teaching. H.R.1 also caps graduate student lending and professional programs, which could disproportionately impact minority students. Minority students and low-income students may be forced to turn to private, high interest loans, increasing the risk of degree noncompletion and loan default.

The unfortunate result of the changes to our educational system — dismantling of the U.S. DOE and H.R.1 — in the pre-K through postsecondary institutions, including professional programs, is that access to education for students will likely be reduced and equal opportunity to obtain a quality education, unless people are wealthy, will also be reduced.

The Cornerstone To Functional Democracy

Education has long been recognized as a pathway to success and upward mobility, achieving the American Dream, but with the dismantling of the U.S. DOE and passage of H.R.1, a hope for a better life through education is being foreclosed for many low-income, disabled, and minority students.

These policies institutionalize the favoring of the haves over the have-nots. There will no longer be an opportunity for “pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps” through education when the education door has been slammed shut for many low-income and minority families and students.

This is not to say that our educational system does not need changing and improvement; it certainly does, but these changes will only exacerbate the inequalities existing in our current society.
Without valuing and supporting education and equal access to education, a people, a state, and a nation cannot thrive. Democracy is imperiled by an uneducated electorate. Perhaps this is the end goal?

Support Education

Hawaiʻi must step into the breach vacated by the current federal administration. Hawaiʻi cannot short change our vulnerable student population. Our elected officials must ensure that critical funding is provided to our public schools where the federal government has receded. Education is not just about personal advancement, but societal wellbeing.