The Hawai‘i Department of Education is bracing itself for impact after the U.S. Department of Education announced Tuesday that it’s cutting nearly half its workforce.
The layoffs come as a push from President Donald Trump to eliminate the department altogether.
Hawaiʻi Superintendent Keith Hayashi said his department hasn’t seen any direct reduction in federal K-12 funding but noted that there are significant threats.
“We are closely monitoring this situation to assess any potential impacts on our schools, educators and students,” he said in a written statement. “Our commitment remains steadfast: we will continue advocating for the resources and support our public education system needs."
The state Education Department has a $2.1 billion budget — 11% comes from federal dollars.
Osa Tui Jr., president of the Hawai‘i State Teachers Association, said most of the laid-off federal workers did education research, and teachers oftentimes based their curriculum on research provided from those federal staff.
“To lose those people who are trying to figure out what are the best way to tackle literacy, what is the best way to go about teaching mathematics, science and social studies… As educators, the loss of knowledge is the loss of power, and we really see that as a destruction of our public schools,” he said.
Tui said he’s also worried about Title I funding, which is a federal program that supports low-income students.
This is a developing story.
