There’s also the long history of neglect of the K-12 public school system because the governing elites and the wealthy tended to sent their kids to private schools…whether in Hawaii or on the US Mainland.
Since the public K-12 were viewed by the well-to-do as mainly serving working-class/low-income Native Hawaiians and Asian/Asian-Americans, they didn’t feel the need to prioritize them that much.
The effects of this are such that Hawaii has one of the highest rates of K-12 students attending private schools(~20%) and many upper/upper-middle class families like my Hawaii-based relatives’ neighbors would shudder at the mere notion of sending their kids to the local public K-12 or in-state public colleges…including the flagship.