THE announcement last month that ground had finally been broken for the new private hospital in Dededo and that the ultra-modern Guam Medical City will soon be opening its doors was astonishing. The thought that someone would invest almost $300 million in the health care of Guam stunned me and took my breath away.

In an effort to meet ongoing island healthcare needs, the Guam Memorial Hospital is likely to spend more than $20 million on ER and ICU improvements over the next two years. Behind the fence, the military is spending $200 million on hospital renovations and new base clinics. This all equals to about half a billion dollars in acute medical care facility upgrades over the next three years.

Over the past seven years, open-heart surgery and other sophisticated, life-saving, invasive medical procedures have been successfully done on Guam. My mom and several other people’s moms and dads have been the beneficiaries, and less people have had to go off-island for medical care. GMH currently meets the American accreditation standards for a safe and competent hospital facility.

A little more than 10 years ago, people were angry and afraid about GMH and the state of our island’s health care. The governor rationalized the multitude of hospital problems as a fiscal reality and surmised, “What do you expect? It’s GMH.” ... Unnecessary hospital deaths, substandard care, filthy emergency room facilities, inconsistent physician leadership and selfish political agendas ruled the day.

Then came the SARS epidemic and the threat of Avian flu. Worldwide epidemics of deadly infectious disease were killing people on our doorsteps and threatening to isolate our economy and our people. A sense of urgency swept across our community and the frail, infuriating, political excuses of the past were passionately rejected.

There were grassroots protests on the grounds of the hospital campus. There were nurses putting their hospital jobs at risk to advocate publicly for improved patient care. There was well-articulated outrage and a corresponding response by the island’s young people to answer the call for help. Students from the University of Guam and Guam Community College stepped forward to transform themselves into excellent healthcare professionals and leaders of the ongoing reform of our island’s health system.

When I look at the transformation occurring in health care, I have to ask myself, What the heck is wrong with Guam’s public education system? In too many schools like Untalan Middle, the bathrooms are filthy and filled with rotting human waste; facilities are in a perpetual state of disrepair; and teachers and students are too often left to suffer in school environments that thwart, rather than promote, learning.

What children seem to be learning is that too few of their parents give a damn about their education. Too busy with “work,” many parents invest in fast-food, designer sneakers, and state-of-the-art video games as proxies for parental responsibility. Kids don’t need their parents/guardians to buy them the latest cell phones; our children need their parents/guardians to show up at every Parent-Teacher Organization meeting, and we all need to help work to make our island’s schools better.

Only through parental love, manual labor and outrage will Guam’s public schools be improved. Too many communities on Guam have learned to be helpless about their children’s education. Don’t wait for the principal, the mayor or the governor to help make your child’s school safe – all parents should come and do it themselves. From all walks of life, parents and all well-meaning adults must invest in our public schools and demand that they be transformed into educational facilities that are good enough for Guam.