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Hawaii’s public education system stands on the brink of a financial crisis that could erode the quality of our schools and leave our most vulnerable students adrift.

Project 2025, a policy platform from the Heritage Foundation that includes a proposal to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education, threatens to pull hundreds of millions of dollars from our state’s public school system.

With the U.S. Department of Education gone, the federal funds that support essential programs in Hawaii— ranging from special education to career readiness — would also disappear, devastating an already stretched educational budget and hitting our most economically disadvantaged communities hardest.

To understand the gravity of this threat, let’s look at the numbers. Hawaii receives roughly $200 million annually from USDOE-administered programs, from Title I funds that support low-income schools to grants that provide vital services for students with disabilities. If the USDOE were eliminated, as Project 2025 proposes, Hawaii would lose not just a federal agency but a lifeline that supports teachers, students and communities throughout the islands.

For starters, Title I funding, which brings in about $60 million to $70 million per year, directly supports schools in low-income areas. These funds allow schools in communities like Waianae and Kalihi to reduce class sizes, improve reading and math resources and provide after-school programs that help bridge the gap for students who may lack academic support at home. Without Title I funds, these schools would be forced to make drastic cuts, widening the opportunity gap for low-income students and deepening educational disparities across our islands.

Special education programs would also face a profound setback. Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Hawaii receives around $50 million to $60 million annually to support students with disabilities. These funds ensure that our schools have the resources — trained specialists, assistive technologies and smaller class sizes — needed to meet the diverse needs of all students. Without IDEA funding, Hawaii’s ability to comply with federal disability laws would be threatened, leaving the state either to fund these mandates entirely on its own or cut vital services for students who need them most.

Additionally, Hawaii receives about $50 million annually in Impact Aid, which helps fund schools near military bases to offset the loss of local tax revenue. Without this support, schools in areas like Ewa Beach and Central Oahu, which serve high numbers of military families, would face a significant shortfall, impacting resources available to both military and non-military families alike.

Eliminating the USDOE would also jeopardize funding for the Native Hawaiian Education Act, which allocates $30 million annually to support programs designed to preserve Hawaiian language and culture in public schools. These programs offer invaluable support to Native Hawaiian students, providing a sense of identity, belonging and pride in a system where many students feel marginalized. The loss of this funding would be a blow not only to these students but to the preservation of Native Hawaiian culture itself.

Career and Technical Education programs would also be affected. CTE grants from the USDOE fund courses that prepare students for high-demand local jobs in fields like health care, tourism and renewable energy. Without these funds, students from rural and lower-income areas, who rely on CTE programs to build job skills and economic stability, would face fewer pathways to employment in a competitive job market.

In total, Hawaii’s schools would be looking at a $200 million loss per year if the USDOE were to disappear. The state would either have to absorb this cost — a difficult proposition for a state already balancing competing financial needs — or cut critical programs. This loss would be devastating for Hawaii’s public education system, especially in the state’s centralized structure, where funding must be distributed across schools on multiple islands and in both rural and urban areas.

Our schools are already facing complex challenges, from rising costs and teacher shortages to the urgent need for climate adaptation in aging facilities. Losing federal funds on this scale would strain the state’s resources beyond capacity, likely resulting in increased taxes or painful cuts to public services.

The stakes are especially high for Hawaii, where our communities rely on an education system that reflects local values, culture and needs. Eliminating the USDOE isn’t just about reducing federal influence; it’s about diminishing our capacity to provide equal educational opportunity for every child, regardless of where they live or how much their parents earn.

Our state leaders cannot wait and hope for a reversal of this policy direction. Governor, Superintendent of Education, Chair of the Board of Education — it is essential that you begin preparing for a future in which federal support no longer reliably funds Hawaii’s public schools.

We urge you to start considering a revised budget proposal for the second year of the biennium that allocates state funds to supplant these threatened federal dollars. Preparing now, while we still have time, is the only way to ensure that our keiki will not be left without the resources they need to learn, grow and thrive.

Hawaii’s children deserve the best, and our state must commit to giving it to them, regardless of federal politics or policy changes. Let’s protect our kids’ futures by making sure their education is fully supported, sustainably funded and safeguarded against uncertainty. Hawaii’s students deserve nothing less.