Voucher system in Hawaii thought unlikely

The Maui News
Friday, June 28, 2002

By EDWIN TANJI
City Editor

WAILUKU — A Maui legislator and an educational leader said Thursday they did not expect Hawaii lawmakers would support a school voucher system as was set up by the Cleveland School District.

Sen. J. Kalani English said he personally would oppose providing vouchers that allow parents to send their children to a private school, with funding from the state.

“Our school system is already suffering challenges because it doesn’t have enough funding. But we are giving more than 50 percent of the state budget to education. If that is not enough, where will more funding come from?” he said.

“Our obligation is to provide for public education, and the state should not be paying to support private schools,” he said.

Gene Zarro, chairman of the new Kihei Charter Public High School, said he would be concerned about an impact on public education if a voucher program were provided in Hawaii.

“A voucher would not pay enough to cover the entire costs of attending a private school, and parents like me would not be able to afford the additional costs of tuition,” he said. “Those who can’t afford the private schools still would need to send their kids to public schools, which could be hurt if there are funding cuts.”

In the voucher decision written by Chief Justice William Rehnquist, the Supreme Court noted that both public and private schools are eligible for payments through the voucher program in the Cleveland School District.

Zarro said a program like that could benefit the Kihei Charter School in competing for students, who would bring with them the payments allotted by the voucher system.

“It would be potentially beneficial to a school like the Kihei Charter Public High School if students make a choice to go to the charter school,” he said.

But it still could harm public education as a whole if funding is siphoned off from public schools to private schools, he said.

English was adamant that any program providing taxpayer money to a private entity, including church-based schools, was wrong.

“It’s a personal choice for parents to send their children to a private school. It shouldn’t be at a cost to the taxpayers for people to have that choice,” he said.

English also said he believes the decision violates the constitutional prohibition on government supporting religion if it provides taxpayer money to a religious program when a school is run by a church.

“I really believe in the separation of church and state,” he said.

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