Maui News: College no longer first option for Maui County public high school graduates

 

Senior Hunter Davis is on track to be one of Maui High School’s valedictorians at the school’s graduation ceremony in May. But his future plans do not include college.

Instead, Davis is taking up a trade he has fallen in love with during classes over the past year: welding.

The 17-year-old is part of a developing trend among Maui County public high school graduates over the past five years — foregoing college for more immediate careers, or skipping college because they see tuition and other associated costs as prohibitive.

In 2019, 57% of Maui County high school graduates in the state Department of Education system went straight into college, either at two-year or four-year institutions, according to the Hawaiʻi Data Exchange Partnership through the University of Hawai‘i.

Only four years later, that number dropped to 46%. Rising college costs, the pauses during the COVID-19 pandemic, and changing mindsets among current high school students are the leading reasons for the precipitous drop in college attendance by Maui County public school graduates, according to students, counselors and school administrators.

Ty Ogasawara, who took over as principal at Maui High this semester, said many of today’s high school students simply aren’t willing to pay the growing costs to attend college when they can go straight into the job market.

And for today’s high school grads on Maui, that job market features good conditions for finding work: low unemployment (3.4% at the end of last year, which is below the national level of 4.1%) and a high demand for trade jobs with the rebuilding of Lahaina.

“I see a lot of people, financial guys or whatever, talking about coming out of college with $200,000 in debt,” Ogasawara said. “And to a 16-, 17-year-old, 18-year-old, that’s like, ‘Well, why am I gonna go?’ And so I think that part plays a lot into it, especially if they don’t see the value and how that connects to the the salary I want or to the job I want.”

The Guardian reported in December that college attendance is falling nationwide, citing data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center that shows enrollment of 18-year-old freshmen dropped by 5% in the fall 2024 semester.

Sarah Pescaia, spokesperson for Hawai‘i P20 Partnerships for Education program that tracks college attendance information, said the trend of local high school graduates not going to college is concerning.

“Most good jobs in Hawai‘i require some post high school education and training, so if we want to empower our students to stay and work at home, it’s imperative that they continue their education after high school,” Pescaia said in an email to the Hawai‘i Journalism Initiative.

People with bachelor’s degrees earn 66% more than those with only a high school diploma, according to updated data in August 2024 from the U.S. Bureau of Labor. And, the earnings gap between college graduates and those without degrees continues to widen.

At Maui’s private high schools — Seabury Hall and Maui Preparatory Academy — it appears all graduates since 2019 have gone to college.

Maui Prep principal Ryan Kirkham said all 97 graduates from his school during this time frame went straight to college. Seabury Hall reported that 420 of its 435 graduates from 2019-24 also went straight to college, with the 15 who didn’t taking a gap year before starting college.

But at the eight public high schools in Maui County, the college attendance numbers are much lower and fluctuate year to year and among the schools.

In 2019, pre-COVID, Lahainaluna High School sent 54% (103 of 192 graduates) to college. The percentage fell to 49% in 2020 and 47% in 2021, when the pandemic caused remote learning and shutdowns.

In 2022, the percentage rose slightly to 49%. But the number fell drastically the next year to 39%, with just 94 of 239 Class of 2023 graduates attending college, the lowest percentage in Maui County among public high schools of more than 400 students. That class experienced a major disruption shortly before they were set to head to college when the Aug. 8, 2023, wildfire destroyed much of the town and killed at least 102 people.

To help reverse the trend and deal directly with the emergency, Lahainaluna’s Class of 2024 seniors were offered the opportunity to go to any of the 10 University of Hawai‘i campuses for free.

And last July, $325,000 in funding from the Hawai‘i Community Foundation’s Maui Strong Fund supported 13 more graduates with $25,000 scholarships from the Downtown Athletic Club of Hawai‘i to go to mainland colleges.

It led to a whopping 85% of Lahainaluna graduates (181 of 212) entering college last fall.

The UH program has been extended to the Lahainaluna Class of 2024 to finish their degrees in either two-year or four-year degrees and it was recently announced that the same program also will be offered to the Lahainaluna Class of 2025 for at least one year to attend UH-Mānoa.

Lahainaluna principal Richard Carosso said earlier this month the tragic circumstances that led to the free college opportunities for Lunas could pay big dividends for West Maui in the long-term.

“I think selfishly for Lahaina it’s the possibility for a generation of kids with the college degrees and the college experience being able to come back to this community,” Carosso said. “It could mean whether we have doctors, nurses, whoever in a professional category which we’ve always struggled with — not only in West Maui, but across the state.”

He added that having professionals who grew up in West Maui likely will make them less transient.

“They are going to work for 30, 40 years here on the west side, and they’re part of this community,” he said. “Their hearts and their roots are in this community.” 

Lahainaluna also has developed a new program called Ke Ala Ipukukui, in which high school students can graduate with a two-year associate degree from UH-Maui College. The program includes a non-degree pathway for students who want to take college classes but not pursue a degree.

Carosso said the program could help build on the momentum from the recent high numbers of college attendance for his school. The 2026 class has the first 12 students set to complete the program. They will graduate with a high school diploma and an associate degree. The ongoing program is being funded by a grant approved by the State Legislature. Books and fees are being paid for with donations from the Lahainaluna High School Foundation. 

“That is helping to get these kids ahead,” Carosso said. “We know that finances and cost of college is a major factor in whether kids go or not. So if we can get kids halfway there here in school without a cost to families, that gives them that leg up and makes college more accessible.”

Carosso also emphasized the importance of good trade jobs.

“Let’s face it, a lot of the blue-collar jobs are probably going to be paying more down the line than some of the white-collar jobs,” Carosso said. “I know countless graduates that went into the trades for my time at King Kekaulike (High School) who are now turning 40, but are just fantastic adults and fantastic community members and have a job in the trades and are supporting their families and doing really well.”

At other public schools around Maui County, college attendance rates vary in comparison to pre-COVID years:

Note: Kūlanihākoʻi High School in Kīhei will have its first graduating class in 2026.

Maui High seniors Kaeo Kaina and Ace Verceluz also have decided on non-college paths after graduation, in part because of the high cost. Kaina wants to work in construction or roofing and Verceluz has enlisted in the U.S. Navy and will ship out for boot camp in Illinois one month after graduating.

“As I went through the years in school, I decided that I felt like school wasn’t for me anymore,” Kaina said. “And I wanted to jump straight into work.”

Kaina said the destructive Lahaina wildfire added to his non-college thought process “because that means there’s more hiring open, and more jobs open” in construction and the trades during the rebuild.

Verceluz wants to become a pilot, saying: “I just think the military is the best path for me because I can learn life skills there.”

Leka Anitema, the post-high/college and career counselor at Maui High, said the landscape is changing rapidly for graduates making decisions about whether to attend college, which is making it a challenge to find the right options for all of her students.

“So, it’s really important to allow the students the opportunity to tell their story,” Anitema said. “Each of them has their own experiences and backgrounds that’s going to shape what they want their future to look like.”

Those futures for current high school students and recent grads look largely different than a lot of their parents, who were on college tracks more than today’s students.

“I think you and I come from a generation that, oftentimes, that future was shaped by outside influences. Heavily. There was not all these different paths to choose from, and there definitely wasn’t all the support,” Anitema said.

Davis, who has a cumulative 4.2 grade-point average and has taken college-level English 100, Psychology 100 and Advanced Placement World History at Maui High, was set on going to college until he discovered welding on the Kahului campus.

“It was very much out of the blue,” Davis said.

The high school senior had never been around welding but signed up for a new manufacturing class at the school taught by Neill Nakamura.

“He had some welding machines in the shop and I got really interested in them,” Davis said. “He put me in touch with a previous student who is now a graduate who has his own welding business.”

That mentor for Davis for the past six months has been Daniel Jacintho, owner of local company Hanapa‘a Welding.

But there still is a push for higher education. On Jan. 24, Maui High hosted the first college fair on Maui County that included all in-state colleges — the 10 UH campuses, Chaminade, Hawaiʻi Pacific, BYU-Hawaiʻi and Hawaiʻi Tokai International. It was Joy Steben’s senior project at Maui High.

“Everyone thinks that they have to go to the Mainland and come back, but they can come to this event and realize that they can go to school right here,” said Steben, who plans to take a gap year during which she also will take a couple of local college classes.

At Baldwin, Maui High and Moloka‘i high schools, students have another post-graduation opportunity through academy learning plans that teach them skills in a career field of their choice.

“Right now, we have a large population of students that are looking to get into the trade areas and trade schools, so how we build the capacity for that and giving these kids the opportunities for certifications and at least that foundational knowledge that kind of supports that effort, I think that’s a great opportunity for them,” said Baldwin High School counselor Kyle Sanches.

Many Maui County graduates are not going far and are opting to attend UH-Maui College, at least for the first two years. The school has four-year bachelor’s degrees available in applied business and information technology and sustainable science management, as well as two-year associate degrees in 20 fields.

The school currently has an enrollment of about 2,800, up from 2,100 just five years ago, according to UH-Maui College enrollment manager Jim Cusick.

Cusick points to the affordability of going to school close to home as a key to the recent uptick in enrollment. The cost for Hawaiʻi residents is $131 per credit for lower division courses and $306 for upper division courses, plus students can live at home to save money.

But for straight-A students like Davis, who have multiple options, Anitema said: “When they make that selection, and they choose to run with it, it’s our duty and responsibility to offer the supports of that path. … If a student does not want to go to college, but qualifies for it, we’re no longer forcing them to do so.”