| Nā Lei Naʻauʻao |
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Nā Lei Naʻauʻao Hawaiian Charter School Alliance One of the goals of the charter school movement is to allow for innovative approaches to education which are designed to improve public education and expand public school choice. As a result public charter schools are exempted from most statutory and regulatory requirements in exchange for performance-based accountability. Intended to stimulate the creativity and commitment of teachers, parents, students, and citizens and contribute to better student academic achievement, the recently passed New Century Charter School law also provides unique opportunities for Hawai`i's native people to assert our indigenous rights to design and control our own educational process. In 1994, an International Covenant on the Rights of Indigenous Nations was drafted in Geneva, which in Article 14 affirms the right of indigenous populations around the world to all levels and forms of education, including access to education in our own languages, and the right to establish and control our educational systems and institutions according to our own customs and traditions. However, according to the Coolangata Statement, ratified by thousands of indigenous educators at the August 1999 World Indigenous Peoples Conference on Education in Hilo, Hawai`i, meaningful, empowering and culturally sustainable education for indigenous people will be possible only when indigenous people have the control (a fundamental right) and the resources (an inarguable responsibility of States / governments) to develop educational theories, curriculum and practices that are indigenous and to determine the environment within which this education can best occur. To assist indigenous peoples in procuring such control and resources, the Coolangata Statement asserts that, "non-indigenous people through the various levels of government and bureaucracy have an over-riding responsibility to accept and uphold the education rights of indigenous people and to know that these rights and freedoms are not negotiable." In January 2000, Na Lei Na`auao, a Native Hawaiian New Century Public Charter School Alliance was formed, whose mission it is to establish models of education throughout the Hawaiian Islands, which are community designed and controlled, and reflect, respect and embrace Hawaiian cultural values, philosophies and ideologies. Utilizing the charter school movement as a vehicle, the Alliance hopes to implement and evaluate Hawaiian models of education, which have the potential of improving the educational success rates of over 50,000 K-12 students of Hawaiian ancestry, presently the most underserved and undereducated population in the State of Hawai`i. In addition, the Alliance wants to actively contribute to the native Hawaiian sovereignty movement by establishing not only native designed and controlled models of education but also assist communities from Ni`ihau to Hawai`i Island to achieve not just cultural but also economic sustainability. Na Lei Na`auao is open to Hawaiian communities and grassroots organizations from throughout the islands interested in developing models of education tailored to the unique needs and interests of Hawai`i's native student population. While this Alliance does not advocate one specific educational model and allows each school to pursue a specific set of educational objectives determined by the school's developer and agreed to by the authorized public chartering agency, Alliance members agree to:
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