Aloha, welcome to Think Tech Hawai'i's Movers, Shakers, and Reformers. I'm your host, Carl Kampala. Join us each week as we explore the challenges and opportunities that the people in Hawai'i face every day. Challenges such as cost of living, education, housing and homelessness, keiki and kupuna care, sustainability, transportation, criminal justice, funding local government, and much much more. To help this exploration, we will be inviting the people, trying to have a positive impact in each of these areas, to join us. It is my great honor and joy to introduce today's guest, beginning as city council staff and legislative aide, then going on to serve our state as a representative and then senator for 26 years. Senator Susanshan Oakland has been a model, a mentor, and an important community leader for most of her life. From the Children in Youth Day and Summit to the multiple legislative working groups and task forces for which she chairs, Senator Susanshan Oakland is one of the hardest working people that alone legislators that I have ever met, dedicated to helping people and truly caring in her efforts to achieve the best outcome for all. I often tell people how I will send the senator an email late at night, 11 p.m. or so, with the question, expecting to hear back at some point in the week, only to find a reply within an hour, sometimes after midnight. A true example of a dedicated public servant. Senator Susanshan Oakland, welcome to the show. Thanks Carl, nice to be here. I really appreciate the opportunity to talk. We want to talk, there's a billion things we can talk about, but we want to focus a little bit on education. Education has been the primary piece of what we've been talking about on this show since January when I first started. So we're going to keep that going forward and then we're also going to be talking about biofuels going forward. So you are more than welcome to come back whenever you would like. So okay, let's talk about education a little bit. Let me hear from you on what you believe, let's first say, start with a legislative session that just ended. What were some of the successes for education from your perspective that you would like to tell us a bit about from this last session? I know that in the earliest years of life, when we know the child is developing brain-wise and just the social-emotional kinds of attachments with folks, one of the successes of the session and thanks to the legislature as well as governor and the community, was the early the preschool open doors. We've been really trying to encourage much more resources for our youngest children from zero to three until they start kindergarten. And having that kind of opportunity, either center-based care or through community-based supports have a very positive, very stimulating kind of environment for children to learn. And so the preschool open doors normally has about six million dollars. We're able to have ten million dollars appropriated for the sliding fee schedule program called preschool open doors. The parents would pay a little bit of it depending on their income, household income. So it's a sliding? sliding fee schedule. And so the state can help support their choice of a center-based early childhood center. That is excellent. Our kids, we know that we started our kids in daycares and it's very expensive. It is. A thousand or more, up to $1,200, $1,400 per month sometimes depending upon age. It's one of the big challenges. You need to be able to make that decision from a cost of living perspective. Can we afford to pay for our child to be in daycare and have a job? Does it pay for itself at the very least? And how do you balance that? So that's a big concern and a huge help to many. So how many kids do you think that can reach to? Well we were serving about maybe 3,000 children so it may actually increase it to about 67,000 children depending of course on the family's household income because then a certain amount of state money from that program will then go towards that child's early learning experiences. We're hoping to grow that area because I know for folks that have lower income, maybe they have more options in terms of funding for those that are kind of in the middle income level, unless your mom and dad can help you as the sandwich generation with maybe paying part of the child care center costs, often times you don't have that option either. I mean our family was in that kind of predicament so thanks to my mom and dad, our children could go to a center-based care and get to meet a lot of children and learn a whole lot. That's a huge aspect, the social ability of it and learning how to be social in different environments. You know that's one of the things I'm very proud of my kids for, I know that you have spent a lot of time and I really appreciate the attention that you've given our kids as well and their inclusion and things but I see it as a testament to the education they've been able to get from really the age one and two and as a result of that type of engagement and socialization it has given them the opportunities to sort of reach out and explore. So I think that is a vital piece that I think once you can open up, once you turn the light switch on right and kids are like oh wow there's more I can do, how about this, how about that and providing those opportunities I think is what creates a better future at least. Also I think you know in terms of the budget we did increase the amount of money that goes to every school in a lump sum and so I'm hoping that the principals and the school community councils will be able to look at that opportunity. I know most of it they probably will be funding faculty positions but we have an opportunity to utilize some of that money more for the you know how could you say it's the hands-on it's the experiential kinds of learning opportunities that aren't necessarily in the classroom so if we can utilize some of that funding to bring in more community as well as allow children maybe through excursions to explore the larger classroom which is our our community at large there's so many things and from the Children and Youth Summit every year we've had it for the last now 23 years young people at least for the last eight years have said you know we want things that are more real to us that we can really participate in and not be lectured to and be able to apply what we learn in the classroom you know either to create a business and be able to connect what we're doing in the classroom to what that means in real life real life outside of school that's a huge challenge you know actually there's community based organizations that are willing partners they're looking for the opportunities to be able to bring children into the low E or be able to bring them into the work setting so that young people know that the math and science they're learning really does have application to real life that brings up the question of career planning and at what point in a curriculum if you're looking at K through 12 should we really begin talking about and integrating the idea of well what are your interests and what some of your interests might lead to career wise what are what have been some of the discussions within legislature or within the children youth summit related to that there's a recognition that not everything can be done during the school hours and so we really try to support through the reach program through you know we use temporary assistance to need family monies to have after school programs before school programs holidays summer programs so that is really enhancing the child's opportunity to explore what they enjoy what they have strengths in maybe even realize maybe this is not something I'm interested in but through those kinds of activities whether school base or community base it helps them to I think be or solidify their interest career wise sure and even with careers you know we're looking at work but even in family life in community life it just allows a young person to really see all the possibilities that are out there and again with the children and you summit and I try to visit with many different programs whether it's our public and private schools or nonprofit organizations but I get a chance to talk to a lot of young people and they they love what they're doing not necessarily in school yeah so I'd like to be able to bring more of that experience together because the schools have a wonderful role to play but I think the community partners can expand their ability to excite their students to really allow them to explore what their talents are I know agreed agreed but as you know Leo my son goes to Kamehameha schools and he's in sixth grade this year and we just had their open house last week and we just learned what they're doing and how they are connecting math language arts and social studies in a way to say this is how math informs each of the other two and vice versa so that's one of the ways that they're trying to connect those pieces his social studies teacher said this is going to be the most math-oriented social studies class that these kids have seen yet because they're going to be able to get to see how it plays and how it relates so so that that's another approach within the classroom as well as connecting math with outside of the well at La Nikila Elementary School you know my fourth grade teacher Mrs. Drake she had actually did that combination for example for math we used to play softball but in order to go to the bases we had to problem solve math problems right so you get the correct answer you get to run to first base second base third and make which is the reward yeah and so that's fun and then she created something where we were learning the culture of Mexico and we learned how to be able to pay money and in their pencils and everything and we we made ponchos crocheted them sold them at this fair fiesta so we learned language arts social studies related things math I mean everything crafts yeah making food and then becoming a business and actually selling all of that of course that money then could be used for something fun hopefully something fun you get to show them something fun and then oh by the way so a little but when when you have that integrated kind of curriculum wow yeah absolutely pops for a lot of people which for me I asked the question when you we've got programs that are successful some schools that have more successful programs it seems than others why are we not able to standardize that well every school has to me wonderful programs it's more the ability to set aside time and I know I've talked to superintendent about this with number of educators even the union HSTA if there is at least an annual or if it could be semi-annual where many of these educators can share what's happening in their classrooms you know if it's not at a function what we did at the student body level when I was student body president at Kauana Nukua is we visited each other's campuses and in this case we learned about what the student governments did in those Honolulu district intermediate schools so I think if we can create those kinds of mechanisms there will be more opportunity to share what is working well what you know may not be working well but because you have colleagues that may be doing something you can learn and then integrate it into your own classroom break down some of the silos yeah that's excellent so we're we'll take a quick break but then we're gonna jump into the next couple of topics which I know you want to talk about as well so I'm looking forward to that so thank you for joining us again this is Think Tech Hawaii's Movers Shakers and Performers I'm your host Karl Kampanya with our amazing guest today Senator Suzanne Chenoklin we'll see you in a minute thanks hello ha how you doing there lassies and laddies this is Angus mctech yet on Think Tech Hawaii and I have my favorite show Hibachi Talk with my good old buddies Gordo the Teksara and Andrew the security guy please join us every Monday no it's Friday every Friday from 1 p.m. to 1 30 p.m. here on Think Tech Hawaii and you can also find us on YouTube Hibachi Talk hello you're watching Think Tech you're watching Think Tech Hawaii which streams live on ThinkTechHawaii.com uploads to YouTube.com and broadcasts on cable O.C. 2016 great content for Hawaii from Think Tech. Aloha I'm Kawi Lucas host of Hawaii is my mainland every Friday here on Think Tech Hawaii I also have a blog of the same game at kawaiilukas.com where you can see all of my past shows join me this Friday and every Friday at 3 p.m. Aloha. Welcome back to Think Tech Hawaii's Movers Shakers and Performers I'm your host Karl Kampanya once again we have some of this attention I'll go into again so let's jump back a little bit we want to mention a couple things specifically with regards to all of these topics that we just mentioned with regards to education you made a comment off-air that not all of this or most of this doesn't actually need a new law or changes to a law correct so tell us about that balance yes I experienced at least in the 26 years that I've been in the legislature and pulling together a lot of different groups much of the issues that are raised doesn't require any law change it's knowing what resources are out there and really infighting those resources human resources and other types of resources to help with our children's education so we have in place you know the parent community network centers PCNC coordinators I know some of the schools no longer have that coordinator position but many years ago we tried to have at least one staff member on the campus that could help the administration the faculty bring together funding resources but also the community resources that really have expertise I often hear teachers wanting the time to be able to explore and learn themselves so they can always do new and better things I feel the community partners in every neighborhood can actually help with that if we can standardize or schedule certain class time so that these community partners can teach subject matter that is related to that classroom then it may free up time for teachers to be able to do more of this kind of in-service training or coordinating among themselves so they can better prepare and evaluate student performance whatever it is so I just feel there is ways if given that flexibility we would be able to utilize community resources better not necessarily have any law changes but maybe different practices another example is you know we found in this one particular state this gentleman wanted to have all young people in high school that were getting F's D's and F's he wanted them in his classroom and he modified the classroom over that one year where he had for many young people they had some attention kind of difficulties he had tables and chairs that were raised so they actually stood up and they could fidget with no problem don't have to get scolded for that he changed their diet because many of them didn't have a balanced meal or even come to school with their stomach at all so he basically did some of those very small changes he knew the children and what their strengths were because of the time he spent with them and from D's and F's B's to A's that's extraordinary that's that is focusing in on kids needs and I think one of the challenges we have is there's the cookie cutter you know one size fits all you go to the classroom and this is how you learn and if you don't learn that way then you're just gonna right but being able to spend that extra time to say okay well this is how this child learns compared to that child and they each of them and we see with our kids they learn differently right and that's the strength of a society everyone has different strengths you know so we need to nurture that and I know the teachers generally understand that that maybe through the scheduling it's not possible currently but I think through union discussions with the teachers involved with the administrators involved I think we can you know refine what we're doing in the classroom so that we can achieve those kinds of outcomes agree we can yeah you know your son I give as an example and I hope I can mention his name but you know when Leo was five I think your wife and and you were asked by him he wanted to buy a Nintendo set and you said well let's help with the business plan and I was like whoa as a listener I was like you know five years old asking a child to do a business plan yeah wow I never thought of that but you did and he was able to develop something called the littlest co-op you know where he and some of his friends from my in my a elementary school because became co-op owners grew fruits and vegetables hui together and basically sold that product to the farmers market how empowering that is we need to be able to do that in the classroom we need to be able to do it even among parents that may not have that knowledge of creating business plans but you know teaching our ourselves how we can empower children from a very young age to do these incredible things I first of all thank you for mentioning that I'm very proud of what he and my daughter and I have both achieve actually so I think one of the keys there is remembering that the kids are not that they're not done remembering that they are very capable they're very smart they have a lot of thoughts and ideas and if you listen to them and just you know shape it a little bit guide a little bit maybe direct some of those thoughts no matter how random they are they can sometimes produce something and that's exactly what happened almost always I almost all given the opportunity and given enough listening and that's one of the skills though that I think we all need to remember listen more yes and my parents were that way too I thank them for that gift of listening and trusting in me as a child to do good things I think you've done many many good things so okay we have a few more minutes I wanted to jump into something you wanted to make sure to talk about was financial literacy with our children so and that that actually is an I segue from what we were just talking about starting to do a little business plan starting up a little business and my kids were able to teach 30 kids from across the island how to do this process yes which is utilizing all of those skills what we've already been saying yeah your your social skills your math skills and just understanding how things work in order to make this thing happen right and I think from a young age from you know when you're a toddler if your parents as well as the school encourages the behavior of saving or at least postponing some of the immediate self gratification no matter how much you put away whether it's a quarter or a dollar yes if you have that good savings habit from early on no matter what you get birthday gifts or you know maybe you earn some money being this delivering newspapers or whatever it is you can actually achieve purchasing a house it's true it's true no matter what your income level is and I know so many people that have done that so within the school setting I know we don't have necessarily a mandate for financial literacy or economics but I think it is important at every age to encourage within the classroom maybe during recess time or lunch recess after school to integrate somehow in a consistent way the children's ability to save and to understand you know how that will impact them in the short and the long run there are some programs that in some classrooms that do some things where they will say okay well if you do this much work if you do this extra work or if you spend time helping some kids or helping around the classroom a little bit you can earn classroom dollars and then and you can save up those classroom dollars and then you can spend it on something classroom-related you know why yeah I know Dr. Chang who is a professor at the University he actually partnered with a number of credit unions across the state 28 elementary schools that have high poverty and I think it was two or three years saved almost a half a million dollars collectively now these are children that are in poverty but they made it a point every month to save something so I think that kind of commitment on the part of our educational system both public and private schools is important and when you have community partners like the financial institutions that are willing to invest some time and resources I think we can go far away what is happening on the affordable housing front is even though we're building affordable housing a lot of folks don't have that understanding of finances and so they even though it may be inexpensive or more affordable rentals or even for sale they don't have even the minimum savings or understanding in order to become a homeowner and there are a lot of reasons for that yeah oftentimes I mean one of the challenges is when English is a second language and that's one of the challenges so just talk about financial literacy you're also talking about just literacy and the ability to I guess thrive in a classroom actually I don't see that with a lot of the more immigrant groups that a lot of them come from cultures at least some of the cultures where savings is very important yeah maybe others not but I don't know if it's a language barrier it's more having that commitment for children to learn that they're they have to save they can't just spend all their money yeah yeah they have to put aside a certain amount for me personally my goal was 90% of whatever I got I kept in my bank account you know that's like that's a commitment right there birthday money ten dollars nine dollars would go to my bank yeah that was from young time we when we when we work with our kids when they were earning their money through littlest co-op we did that same thing we said okay this is how much you earn today let's take 50% of it 50% of it you're gonna put that away and then the other 50% you can choose whether you want to save or whether you want to you know spend it however let's let's have that experience we wanted them to experience spending all of their money and having nothing experience what it means to save and be able to plan towards a larger purchase and all of those things and they got that message so that my daughter at one point saved up over $500 she's like all right what can I spend this so it was a fun moment for her to realize oh wow I got this big thing that I didn't realize I could ever buy by myself and yeah so that's a huge connection piece as well we only have a couple minutes left unfortunately I wanted to talk about a bit of brain drain with you and I see it in two different areas you know number one how some of our kids move away but number two how many people believe that they go to high school and their ultimate end goal is to work in a hotel and that there's more of a service visitor you know tourism type career is really what they have and I've heard this from a number of people that they just know well there's no reason for me to be in high school except I'm supposed to be because all I'm gonna end up doing is you know doing laundry and hotel for the rest of my life so those there's one of the challenges that's there and I guess in the last like minute that we have I don't know if you have any father comment on addressing that or what your experience is about I don't know if I would see it as a brain drain what is happening you know for many years is our children have been well educated and they go abroad whether it's in another state or another country and do remarkable things where they are I would want to encourage them to come back to share but with technology they can actually help our economy long-distance I don't know if people really look at that as an opportunity when we have such a far reach across the globe I think Hawaii can impact so many more places and bring in all that experience that they're learning elsewhere and be able to I hope make our economy and I guess understanding of all different kinds of issues that much more richer I think that's true I think so that's what I'm seeing and then for those that have gone away many generations ago and are coming back I mean they're all success stories I hear so much good that they've done outside so because by 2030 one out of three people are going to be 65 years in order we need to look at that age group as a huge resource to then help with education help be able to initiate things that may be as a sandwich generation we're like oh my god we don't have enough time in the day I think those individuals have a lot to offer create more intergenerational programs where the knowledge that has been gained can be shared with our young people you know I mean it's to me it's an exciting time and it definitely is I have to apologize yes we are out of time I can spend another I don't know how many days talking about a lot of things but thank you so much so thank you very much for joining us again this is thinking why is education used to be education now so mover shakers and reformers thank you again to our guests