Hawaiʻi’s Department of Education promised to make our keiki’s classrooms cooler.
Instead, what we got was a hot mess, one that burned through over $100 million of taxpayer money and left far too many classrooms sweltering.
Nearly a decade ago, the “Cool Classrooms Initiative” was launched with big talk and bigger checks.
Then-Governor David Ige pledged to cool 1,000 classrooms by year’s end.
The Legislature handed over $100 million to make it happen.
But according to the State Auditor, the DOE can’t even explain where the money went. The department was “unable to provide a complete and accurate accounting” of the funds.
In the end, only 838 classrooms got air-conditioning, and plenty of them still feel like ovens.
Some principals told auditors that the AC systems barely worked at all.
Many units relied on “complex and unfamiliar” solar systems that only operated about five hours a day, leaving classrooms hot the rest of the time.
To make matters worse, the DOE decided to seal jalousie windows with plexiglass, blocking trade winds and trapping heat inside.
What was supposed to be a solution turned into a “$120 million disaster,” according to one DOE official quoted in the audit report.
But the real issue goes beyond poor planning. It’s about leadership, kuleana, and the lack of pono in how the department manages our public dollars.
Superintendent Keith Hayashi, the head of the DOE, was called out directly by state auditors for dismissing the seriousness of these findings.
His official response, they said, showed “a disregard for policies and procedures and a lack of transparency.”
Or put another way: the braddah neva take responsibility.
Under Hayashi’s watch, the DOE kept spending but failed to track results.
More than $25 million went to outside consultants and design firms, while too many local schools, especially on the neighbor islands, were left out completely.
West Oʻahu schools got the bulk of the funding; the Big Island saw just one project.
And the so-called “School Directed AC Program,” which let individual schools handle their own installations, was barely monitored.
One DOE official even admitted they only find out something went wrong “if something blows up.”
When our keiki can’t concentrate in 100-degree classrooms, and millions vanish with no clear record, that’s not just mismanagement – that’s corruption of kuleana.
It’s the same old story in Hawaiʻi: big promises, outside contracts, and local families left wondering where the money went.
Hayashi and the DOE owe Hawaiʻi’s people a full, public, line-by-line accounting of every dollar spent.
Until then, no talk about “net-zero energy” or “sustainability” can hide the truth: our schools stayed hot while our tax dollars vanished.
We deserve better leadership.
We deserve accountability.
Most of all, our keiki deserve cool classrooms and a government that runs pono.
