Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 108 Part 5.djvu/307

 PUBLIC LAW 103-382—OCT. 20, 1994 108 STAT. 3797 "(B) Native Hawaiian students continue to begin their school experience lagging behind other students in terms of readiness factors such as vocabulary test scores; "(C) Native Hawaiian students continue to score below national norms on standardized education achievement tests at all grade levels; "(D) both public and private schools continue to show a pattern of lower percentages of Native Hawaiian students in the uppermost achievement levels and in gifted and talented programs; "(E) Native Hawaiisin students continue to be overrepresented among students qualifying for special education programs provided to students with learning disabilities, mild mental retardation, emotional impairment, and other such disabilities; "(F) Native Hawaiians continue to be underrepresented in institutions of higher education and among adults who have completed four or more years of college; "(G) Native Hawaiians continue to be disproportionately represented in many negative social and physical statistics, indicative of special educational needs, for example— "(i) Native Hawaiian students are more likely to be retained in grade level and to be excessively absent in secondary school; "(ii) Native Hawaiian students are the highest users of drugs and alcohol in the State of Hawai'i; and "(iii) Native Hawaiian children continue to be disproportionately victimized by child abuse and neglect; and "(H) Native Hawaiians now comprise over 23 percent of the students served by the State of Hawai'i Department of Education and there are and will continue to be geographically rural, isolated areas with a high Native Hawaiian population density. " (18) The findings described in paragraphs (1) through (17) are contrary to the high rate of literacy and integration of traditional culture and Western education achieved by Native Hawaiians through a Hawaiian language-based public school system established in 1840 by Kamehameha III. "(19) After the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawai'i in 1893, Hawaiian medium schools were banned. After annexation, throughout the territorial and statehood period, and until 1986, use of Hawaiian as a medium of education in public schools was declared unlawful, thereby causing incalculable harm to a culture that placed a very high value on the power of language, as exemplified in the traditional saying: 'I ka 'olelo no ke ola; I ka 'olelo no ka make. In the language rests life; In the language rests death.'. "(20) Despite the consequences of over 100 years of nonindigenous influence, the Native Hawaiian people are determined to preserve, develop, and transmit to future generations their ancestral territory, and their cultural identity in accordance with their own spiritual and traditional beliefs, customs, practices, language, and social institutions.

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