TheHawaiiChannel.com 7-9-04
The country of Iraq may now be under Iraqi control, but that is not stopping nearly 2,000 Hawaii-based National Guard reservists from being sent there. The group ships out to Iraq in February, but the reservists will be heading to the mainland for training in September. Many of those deploying are teachers who will be leaving the state’s classrooms. Waianae High School teacher Hank Choy is one of Hawaii’s educators headed to Iraq with the National Guard. Choy worries the teacher who replaces him will not be as firm. "I push the kids, really push them," Choy said. Choy says the loss of deploying education officers and teachers will be felt all over the state. "If you take these good teachers out and you try to fill somebody back in No two people fit in the same shoes," Choy said.
| Do you get the impression he doesn't want to go to Iraq? |
The teachers’ union said it’s uncertain how many teachers will be deployed, but there are 600 either in the reserves or the guard. "The overall concern is the current teacher shortage that we have," said teachers union president Roger Takabayashi. "That’s the problem to begin with, and you add this on top of it, and that’s another issue. There is just a tremendous teacher shortage." The Department of Education said it will have to hire full replacements for the guard soldiers at war since they will be gone for 18 months. The Pentagon has been deploying more National Guard troops to Iraq because the active duty Army is not large enough to keep up with needed troop rotations. National Guard brigades in Iraq will grow from three to five, including our Hawaii brigade. |