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For the second year, The Hawaii Island New Knowledge (THINK) fund is dispersing $1 million in STEM grants and scholarships to students, most of them Native Hawaiians.
That’s a good thing, considering that the funding source is the nonprofit hoping to build the Thirty Meter Telescope, a project now in limbo.
The TMT, of course, is facing a major battle launched by activists who view Mauna Kea as too sacred a cultural site for future scopes. A Hawaii Supreme Court ruling backed activists’ claims that TMT’s permitting process was flawed, so a new contested case hearing is imminent.
Before the court setback, TMT had pledged $1 million annually to educate Hawaii island students in science, technology, engineering and math, as long as the scope was under construction or in operation. But if folks think that benefit will stay if the scope is forced to leave Hawaii, THINK again.
