Hawaii’s DOE - First No Buses, now No Payroll!!

[leilanidude]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/yellow-school...13033.html

Lack of drivers/busses not just a Hawaii issue.

[Punatang]

living paycheck to paycheck

78% of Americans (including Brits living in The USA) report living paycheck to paycheck, according to a 2023 survey conducted by Payroll.org

24% of Americans making $100,000 or more report living paycheck to paycheck, according to a Bankrate.com survey.

Hawaii Schools received a "D"  from the American Public Education Foundation for failing to, "ensure any substantial financial literacy instruction." 

When Americans get a raise, a shocking number of them immediately go out and get another payment. It's a culture of overspending and debt. This is not to say that teachers are properly compensated. I suspect that many are not. I'm simply saying that more money rarely solves the paycheck --  paycheck conundrum. People in every profession and walk of life, simply refuse to live within their means. The nicest thing we could do for our keiki, in my opinion, is teach them to be financially literate and avoid most forms of debt.

TomK you will appreciate Charles Dickens in David Copperfield. He says:

Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six , result happiness.
Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

You may be surprised at how many are making $90-$110k

You have a lower threshold of surprise than I do.
Have you ever been in a Hawaii school classroom? For some teachers a raise is a good reason to continue another year or two. No matter how much they love the profession, there are a few students who can make it a challenge.

[MyManao]

Have you ever been in a Hawaii school classroom?  For some teachers a raise is a good reason to continue  another year or two.  No matter how much they love the profession, there are a few students who can make it a challenge.

I was once asked by the DOE to give a series of talks in 11th grade classrooms. The Feds had added an extra year of math to qualify for graduation and there were a lot of 11th graders that weren't going to graduate next year unless they took the initiative and applied for another year of math. I was asked to discuss the consequences.

The thing that struck me most of my experience, I talked to about 16 classes around the island, was the absolute unruliness of some of the students. It was like a zoo. Seriously, they were the most undisciplined, most outspoken and in may instances vile kids I had ever encountered. Absolutely unbelievable. I would never, ever, work in that environment. And have a hell of a lot of respect for the teachers that do.

[kalianna]

Thatʻs very disturbing. How long ago was this and do you think things have changed since that time?

[leilanidude]

You may be surprised at how many are making $90-$110k

You have a lower threshold of surprise than I do.
Have you ever been in a Hawaii school classroom? For some teachers a raise is a good reason to continue another year or two. No matter how much they love the profession, there are a few students who can make it a challenge.

As I had stated, I don't have a problem with them making that much. I do have an issue in that every single year, the union touts low pay and demands more yet the teachers are not held accountable. My sons had some particularly bad ones in Pahoa High.

MyManoa - I have been in the classrooms and can agree with you. One issue is that teachers are basically allowed to do no disciplinary actions other than "send the child to the office".

[terracore]

Have you ever been in a Hawaii school classroom?  For some teachers a raise is a good reason to continue  another year or two.  No matter how much they love the profession, there are a few students who can make it a challenge.

I was once asked by the DOE to give a series of talks in 11th grade classrooms....Seriously, they were the most undisciplined, most outspoken and in may instances vile kids I had ever encountered. Absolutely unbelievable. I would never, ever, work in that environment. And have a hell of a lot of respect for the teachers that do.

In 2013 our daughter was a 16 year old student at Keaau High School.  This was her assessment:

"My school caters to the stupid and the angry. There aren't any resources left over for the smart kids."

She wasn't exaggerating, they told her they didn't have any classes for her.  We had to start sending her to the community college, where she earned the rest of the credits she needed for high school (at our expense, of course).  She could have earned the credits at Keaau High, but it would have been a situation like taking an algebra course she'd already taken instead of learning calculus, etc.  That was her junior year.  When she was done with that semester they graduated her a year early as a Valedictorian. Since her last semester was essentially at the community college, she was done with HS a year and a half early.

She transferred to the school the previous year, having come from Alaska, and they tried to put her in "basic math".  She had already been through algebra and wasn't going to sit through a year of watching other kids learn to plus and minus, but her counselor wouldn't listen to her, so she went into the principal's office and told him, "I am NOT going to take basic math.  I can TEACH basic math."  She was her best advocate, and she was already pissed at him for denying her a transfer to Hilo High.  The irony was the following year, she was literally teaching basic math at KHS in a mentorship program.  Instead of basic math, they put her in pre-calculus, which the school didn't offer, so it was watching a classroom on Maui via skype.  The Maui teacher didn't consider her a part of the class, for that and other reasons she couldn't learn calculus watching pixelated video of a Maui classroom, so she taught herself by watching youtube videos.  Let that sink in:  she learned more watching youtube than in public high school.

[TomK]

Punatang - thanks for your response; I get what you're saying. On the other hand, I would like to see more data. Is there a Copperfield effect, or are ~30% of teachers under severe financial pressure? Without that breakdown of the data, I don't think we can draw conclusions.

[leilanidude]

@Terracore - I know exactly what your daughter went through. My youngest son was engaged as a math tutor for high school students while in 8th grade at Pahoa... He ended up graduating Pahoa High in 3 years. He was initially denied early graduation because the vice-principal told him that they need him to do the senior year to help the overall scores for the rapidly dwindling class size. He took his arguments to the state himself and won the right to graduate a year early.

[Punatang]

 I would like to see more data

 Let's consult the experts:



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