Senate committee backs $4 million request to expand Ho'akea cultural-education program

The Senate Committee on Education on Feb. 3 voted to recommend passage, with amendments, of Senate Bill 5 29, which would appropriate funding for the Department of Education’s Ho'akea program. The committee recorded a unanimous recommendation to pass the measure and noted in its report that the department requested $4,000,000 for the program for the coming fiscal year.

The Ho'akea program pairs classroom instruction in math, science, social studies, civics, language and literacy with community-based cultural practices, including canoe voyaging and on‑land activities. Department of Education Superintendent Keith Hayashi testified that the department “stands on its written testimony in support of this measure” and described the initiative as an opportunity to connect students with community partners and place-based learning.

Nainoa Thompson, president and chief executive officer of the Polynesian Voyaging Society, testified in support and emphasized the program’s broad aims. “Education is everything,” Thompson said. He described multi-day Ho'akea events that the society and partners stage across the islands and said the program creates “a bridge” between families, communities and teachers. Thompson estimated that, as programs scale, “we may be at the point where we'll be able to train 2,600 teachers and to reach 55,000 students.”

Committee members pressed department witnesses on the extent to which Ho'akea is or will be embedded in regular classroom curriculum and on how implementation will be measured. Vice Chair Donna Mercado Kim asked whether the program is required in classrooms, how DOE ensures consistency across teachers, and how the department will measure student exposure and outcomes. Hayashi and other DOE witnesses said Ho'akea activities are intended to connect to existing curriculum and that teacher professional development is a central component, but acknowledged that individual teacher uptake will vary.

Hayashi told senators that DOE has trained about 1,300 teachers to date and that prior implementation relied in part on federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds. He said the requested $4 million would support both teacher professional development and student activities, and would help build district capacity across the islands. “The 4,000,000 will allow us for 8 districts on Hawaii Island to do east and West,” a department witness said during the hearing, describing the kinds of expenses—canoe movement, partner costs and event staging—that the appropriation would cover.

On program evaluation, the department said it already collects post-event teacher evaluations and uses broader survey tools such as Panorama to track indicators of student engagement and connectedness. But officials acknowledged there is not currently a single end‑of‑year metric that directly ties all student outcomes to Ho'akea participation; they said the department could develop additional measures as the program scales.

Supporters described recent Ho'akea events in Maui that included roughly 2,000 students and multiple community partners. Committee members and witnesses also discussed a ‘‘train‑the‑trainer’’ approach used at some convenings to build in‑district capacity so lead teachers can extend practices to grade‑level teams.

Committee leaders adopted a recommendation to pass the bill with amendments and asked staff to note the department’s $4,000,000 request in the committee report. The recommendation carried on a recorded voice vote in which five members voted in the affirmative. No formal dissent was entered on the record.

Looking ahead, the department said it plans to continue training additional teachers over the next three years, work with community partners to host pre‑event classroom activities and post‑event follow-ups, and refine evaluation tools to better measure classroom integration and student benefits.