While Hawai'i educators welcomed President Bush's promise to boost teacher training in advanced math and science, they questioned where the money will come from and whether the proposal is enough.

In his State of the Union address, Bush proposed to train 70,000 teachers to instruct Advanced Placement math and science high school courses; bring 30,000 math and science professionals in as teachers in America's classrooms; and give early help to students who struggle with math even before high school.

Bush won praise for acknowledging the problems, but also skepticism based on the record of funding for his No Child Left Behind initiative that aims to significantly raise the test scores of elementary and middle school students.

"If he really wants to make a difference, let's fully fund No Child Left Behind first," said Hawai'i State Teachers Association president Roger Takabayashi. He noted that the states instead are having to provide $27 billion from their own coffers, according to National Education Association statistics.

"It sounds good in a speech, but is this going to be another underfunded initiative?"

State schools superintendent Pat Hamamoto said she is pleased the president recognized the need to focus on math and science, but that the proposal to train teachers for Advanced Placement math and science is only a beginning.

"The need is so great I don't even know if it's going to make a dent," Hamamoto said.

And she pointed out that the fundamental needs in the earlier grades are still overwhelming nationwide.

"As much as we want to train the high school teachers, we also have to support the elementary and middle school math and science teachers," Hamamoto said. "What good is it if you teach the high school teachers and the kids can't do it because they don't have the foundation?"

Hawai'i educators and union leadership point out that simply recruiting teachers is already a major challenge when a beginning plumber can count on making almost twice as much as a beginning teacher — with about the same amount of training.

"To recruit and retain more good teachers, especially in these shortage areas, we must provide greater incentives and better working conditions," said Randy Hitz, dean of the College of Education at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa campus.

"The president's plan must include tuition support, mentoring for beginning teachers and improvements in working conditions for all teachers if we are to recruit the quality and quantity of people we need."

In the coming fiscal year, raises will boost the starting pay of beginning Hawai'i public school teachers with a bachelor's degree to $39,900. That compares to a starting salary of $62,000 for a journeyman plumber with five years of training after a high school diploma, according to Takabayashi.

"The light at the end of the tunnel is not bright," Takabayashi said. "A salary of $39,000 is not very attractive if you're thinking of trying to feed a family. And the working conditions aren't the greatest either. They (the DOE) want to put $160 million into our schools (for repairs and other capital improvements) but very, very few are even air-conditioned."

But with the entire nation facing a teacher shortage, especially in math and science, any help is welcome, Hitz said.

And the aid could prove useful to Hawai'i schools, whose students did not perform well on national math assessment tests last year. Fourth-grade students tied with Arizona, Louisiana and Nevada as the second-lowest in the nation, and eighth-grade students scored the fourth-lowest.

UH is looking to provide a quick course in teaching techniques if the national program Teach for America comes to Hawai'i. The program, like a domestic Peace Corps, places college graduates in teaching positions for two years before they head into their original career paths.

Gov. Linda Lingle and the Board of Education have made the teacher shortage a priority issue. In her State of the State address, Lingle made several proposals, including: paying $10,000 annual bonuses to any of the state's national board certified teachers who spend three years in underperforming schools; hiring retired teachers for two years without loss of retirement benefits; reducing from 10 to 6 years the amount of time needed to qualify for loan forgiveness for tuition at any certified teaching program; and creating an emergency certified teacher program to put anyone with a bachelor's degree or higher into a classroom.

Gail Awakuni, the award-winning principal of Campbell High School in 'Ewa Beach, spoke recently of how bringing in professionals from other fields as teachers — including a former CPA, a health manager and a SERVCO vice president — has brought an extra dimension to the teaching Campbell offers.

"They come with added value, with other kinds of experiences," she said. "They have bought (homes) in our area and are making major career shifts from private enterprise to come into the profession. They've all gone back to school for a teacher degree and wanted to teach in their community. They're excellent role models and that brings stability to the school, too."

Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com.