Mr. Jeffrey Coakley’s letter to the editor April 10 demonstrates yet again the dangers of the “fake news” era prompted by our current president. It apparently is OK to disparage a whole group of people (13,000-plus teachers in Hawaii) without any factual evidence to back it up.
There are many flaws in Mr. Coakley’s logic — and his rambling, unfocused letter shows clearly his lack of content or research on the topic of his wrath. First, to claim that “the DOE has never been audited and the HSTA teacher’s union doestn’t seem interested” is an outright falsehood and obstruction of the truth.
Who is Mr. Jeffrey Coakley? What insight does he have to the inner workings of the HSTA? Mr. Coakley’s inference that the HSTA would not support an audit of the Department of Education is untrue.
Our HSTA bylaws clearly state an unwavering support for education funding that supplies classrooms with all their basic needs. What evidence does Mr. Coakley show to support this accusation? As a highly active participant of the 13,000-plus member HSTA union, I can assure you that we do care about wasteful spending at the DOE level.
However, Mr. Coakley is misinformed — or hasn’t fully researched the topic of “taxes and education spending” in Hawaii. If Mr. Coakley had spent some time researching the topic, as I require my second-grade students to do before making an assumption or taking a position on a controversial issue, he would have found that HSTA has consistently supported any investigation or audit into the DOE spending practices.
However, the funding formula for schools in Hawaii is a complicated issue — calling for a “federal audit of how these monies are being spent” isn’t as simple as it seems. There are complex funding formulas in place for funding our schools — federal monies are only a portion of our funding. There are state and local funding sources as well.
Mr. Coakley sounds like a disgruntled Republican from Oklahoma — a state where teachers are now in their second week of a walk-out in support of increased funding for their schools. Luckily, we live in Hawaii, where we have strong support for our teachers and staff, who work diligently to provide the best possible education for our keiki.
Ironically, wasteful spending at the DOE level is one of the priority issues of HSTA — we want to ensure that funding goes directly to classrooms. Any wasted money at the DOE level only hampers our efforts to provide the best possible education for our students. Again, Mr. Coakley needs to check his facts before making sweeping comments such as “HSTA wants to increase taxes against the majority will of the people.” What tax increase is he talking about? Why does he think HSTA would support any waste at the DOE level? Where are his sources?
I implore Mr. Coakley to come join me in my classroom and see how we work on a daily basis. Walk in my shoes, and then tell me how much wasteful spending is going on in our classrooms. Maybe you could enjoy the hot, humid, non-air-conditioned conditions we enjoy every day at our school. Oh, and then try to complete a high-stakes test in those hot, humid, uncomfortable conditions.
We need your support in our classrooms, not unwarranted criticisms. Yes, an audit of DOE is highly warranted — your help getting this done would be appreciated.
Thank you to all our supporters of public education.
Toni Reynolds is a resident of Kailua-Kona.
