Teacher Pipeline Far Short of Demand
Recruiting qualified teachers is one of the largest barriers to expanding Kaiapuni programs, Kauʻi Sang, director of the state’s Office of Hawaiian Education, told the education board at a recent meeting. The department needs to balance adding classrooms against having enough teachers to support existing schools, she said.
“We cannot open classrooms unless we have qualified staff,” Sang said.
The department currently has three unfilled Kaiapuni positions and employs 25 unlicensed Kaiapuni educators who still need to fulfill their training requirements, according to Nanea Ching, the department’s communications director.
The actual gap may be far larger. Kananinohea Mākaʻimoku, an associate professor at the University of Hawaii Hilo’s College of Hawaiian Language, said the number of additional teachers needed to fully staff Kaiapuni schools could be closer to 100, because some teachers are already carrying larger-than-average class sizes that official vacancy counts do not capture.
Aha Kauleo, an advisory group of Hawaiian language schools and organizations, projects the department will need 165 more Kaiapuni teachers over the next decade — a figure that does not account for a large cohort of teachers expected to retire in the coming years, Mākaʻimoku said.
Last year, the University of Hawaii’s campuses at Manoa and Hilo produced a combined 12 licensed Kaiapuni teachers.
Finding qualified candidates is difficult, Mākaʻimoku said, because Hawaiian-language speakers are in demand across many careers. But the shortage should not halt expansion, she said, especially given the movement’s family support and momentum.
Incentives and New Pathways
Since 2020, the state has offered an $8,000 annual salary bonus to attract Kaiapuni teachers to classroom positions. Officials are also planning to expand grade levels at existing Kaiapuni schools next year and to track open seats and waitlists statewide to identify where demand is greatest.
Mākaʻimoku said the state needs to look beyond graduates of Kaiapuni programs to broaden the potential teaching pool. Offering more Hawaiian language classes to families and community members, she said, could encourage more people to pursue Kaiapuni teaching credentials.
“That’s definitely a conversation that all communities in Hawaii should have,” she said.
Kahea Faria, an assistant specialist at UH Manoa’s College of Education and a Kaiapuni parent, said she wants to see more DOE campuses dedicated exclusively to immersion students across all grade levels. Environments where Hawaiian is the only spoken language are critical to students’ development, she said, and could also encourage more students to pursue teaching careers in Kaiapuni schools.
“Right now, with a growing number of students, they have very limited opportunities to grow their language abilities,” Faria said.
Families Forced Out of Their Districts
The geographic gaps are acute in Pearl City on Oahu, where children can attend the Kaiapuni program at Waiau Elementary through sixth grade but must then transfer to immersion programs in Kapolei or Honolulu — or switch to an English-language school — for middle school. There are no Kaiapuni middle or high school programs in the district.
A petition to add Kaiapuni programs at Highlands Intermediate and Pearl City High School gathered more than 100 signatures over three weeks.
“Our keiki start their educational journey in Hawaiian immersion programs, but upon reaching intermediate and high school levels, they find themselves with no option but to leave their home district,” Chloe Puaʻena Vierra-Villanueva, a parent, said in written testimony to the Board of Education.
Two lawsuits filed in August argued the department has fallen short of its constitutional responsibility by maintaining enrollment waitlists and limiting programs in certain districts. One of those lawsuits was later dropped; the second remains active.