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Volu me 105 Issue 96
Federal Work Study funds run dry C HELSEA YAMASE Associate Design Editor The termination of 33 tutors at O‘ahu elementary schools comes at a bad time for students who need help and for those who are trying to provide it. “I felt really bad. One of my kids came up to me and said, ‘Miss Amy, so tutoring this Monday, right?’ and I had to tell him ‘Oh no buddy, we don’t have tutoring.’ He was like ‘What? Am I in trouble? I promise I’ll be good!’” said Amy Shigemitsu, a University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa student and federal work-study tutor, in a telephone interview. “How do you explain to a fi rst-grader something like losing a job?” The tutors are provided at no cost to the elementary schools through the America Reads federal work-study program. However, with two and a half weeks left in this semester, UH Mānoa students awarded with federal work-study have been let go from
their jobs due to budget shortages. The federal funds, which are allocated from the federal government to the University of Hawai‘i, are intended to employ students throughout the semester as a form of untaxed fi nancial aid. The university students were given two weeks’ notice March 17. With Spring Break starting the next day, many of the elementary school program coordinators were unaware of the situation. As of April 1, Shigemitsu and the other America Reads tutors found themselves offi cially unemployed. Unable to earn their work-study funds through this program, the tutors must now apply for another work-study placement (such as an on-campus job) or fi nd another source of income. Some students have elected to continue tutoring even though they’re not being paid. “I k now that some people are volunteer ing st ill, out of the goodness of their hear t ,” Shigemitsu sa id.
Under federal guidelines, institutions receiving work-study funds are required to have a reading program. While this could mean a single tutor, UH Mānoa’s program reaches approximately 200 students at seven elementary schools across O‘ahu. The 33 tutors primarily worked with students after school to improve reading fluency and comprehension, but some tutors also assisted teachers in the classroom during school hours. The America Reads Program had tutors at Ala Wai, Hōkūlani, Kalihi Kai, Kūhiō, Lunalilo, and Noelani elementary schools and Mō‘ili‘ili Community Center. Without tutoring available, Shigemitsu said she anticipates more elementary students will be spending their afternoons in the A+ after-school program. “ There is a
need in the community, and the tutors seem to enjoy it,” said Noreen Okikawa, the UH Mānoa student employment director. “What happened this year can be looked at two ways,” Okikawa
stated. While expressing sympathy for the tutoring students, See Vanishing tutors, next page
NIK SEU / KA LEO O HAWAI‘I
Elementary-aged children have lost valuable tutoring time with UH Mānoa students because allotted federal work-study funds have been depleted.
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