Page 174 - Why We Want You To Be Rich - Donald Trump, Robert Kiyosaki.pdf

168 I CHAPTER FOURTEEN

doing in school. This was to ensure that the sugar plantation had enough
uneducated laborers. My father learned that teachers, principals and people
at all levels within the education system went along with that. It was then
that my father decided against medical school and went to college to become
a teacher to try to change the system. In addition, he fought to bring the
best education possible to kids whose parents could not afford private
schools - kids who had no choice but to depend on the public school
system to workfor them instead of against them. He fought that battle all
his life.
However, our country's education system is just gettingworse. America
has one ofthe worst educational systems in the world, yet it spends more
money on education than any other country does.
As hard as my dad fought, the state ofHawaii continues to have one of
the worst education systems in America. The May 2006 issue ofHonolulu
Magazine ran a cover-page article grading public schools in Hawaii. The
article stated that the National Education Association (NEA) rated Hawaii
as number 43 out ofthe SO states - in other words, the seventh lowest in
the nation. It issued a D- in standards and accountability, an F for school
climate, a D for improving teacher quality and a C in adequacy of school
resources.
This is not caused by a lack of money. In 2001, the budget for the
educational system was $1.3 billion and in 2006 it is $2.1 billion. As the
article stated:

"But while legislators are forking over more money today than they
did fiveyears ago, taxpayers aren't seeing any payoff. One thing that
hasn't changed much about our government-run school system is
its remarkable ability to resist change."

My father ran for lieutenant governor ofHawaii because he realized he
could not change the system as only the superintendent of education. He
needed to go higher, so he ran for office as a Republican, in a very pro-labor
Democratic state. He was crushed in more ways than one. Not only was he
never allowed to hold a government job in Hawaii again (because he went

WHY WE WANT You To BE RICH
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