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 We Have a Consensus! (Nan Lowers & Marguerite Simson)Action on Election LawsLegislative Workshops (Sue Thorndike)Maui Unit of State League of Women Voters (Marion Saunders)State ConventionHuman Resources (Lila Grossman)State BoardCall to Action |
Human ResourcesFamily income of $4000 or below is the rough measure of poverty here in Hawaii. The 1960 census figure shows 23% of Hawaii's families with incomes below $4000. It has been estimated that between 10% and 20% of the State's population remains in that category as of 1966. Our present population is a little over 700,000. There are some 350,000 adults in Hawaii. Of these, 54% have less than four years of high school and some 20,000 adults have one year or less of high school education. Our State welfare costs are around $16,000,000. Roughly $12,000,000 go for cash payments and the remaining $4,000,000 go for medical costs to Hawaii's poor. Seventy percent of our poor are children ranging in age from infants to 18 years of age. Since the Office of Economic Opportunity opened here a year ago in January, 1965, Hawaii has received and spent $4.4 million for the War on Poverty. A sampling of the major programs are as follows:
Hawaii qualified for 2.8 million in Federal aid under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. Under Title I, schools in low income areas qualify for programs which broaden children's cultural horizons such as field trips to concerts, museums, etc. and for hiring teacher aides and classroom assistants to free teachers of routine chores. Another program under the Act includes a language and reading laboratory designed to improve the reading, speech and writing of students in grades 7 through 12. Our 1965 Legislature appropriated some $26,000,000 for social, economic and educational programs bearing on equality of education and employment. One such program was in adult education with funds to provide tuition-free classes in reading, writing, and arithmetic through grade 12 under the Citizenship and Basic English Programs. Previously, tuition-free classes were authorized through grade 6. In an attempt to legislate against the drop-out problem, the Legislature raised the age for compulsory school attendance from 16 to 18 except when the child has graduated from a technical school. The new teacher pay scale allows the Department of Education to provide additional benefits to teachers in areas designated as limited environment communities by the Department in an effort to get and keep good teachers in areas where the need is great but where it is hard to keep good personnel. Lila Grossman |
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