Hawaii teachers contract

FULL IMPACTS UNCLEAR, STRIKE POSSIBLE

BY ERIN MILLER

WEST HAWAII TODAY

emiller@westhawaiitoday.com

The full impact of the rejection Thursday of a proposed teachers contract was still unclear Friday, as the possibility of a teacher strike remained on the table.

Gov. Neil Abercrombie, in a news conference Friday afternoon, expressed his confusion about what went wrong when teachers voted on the contract.

“What’s your proposal?” Abercrombie asked, referring his questions to the 67 percent of teachers who voted not to ratify the contract. “I do not know of any item that has been brought forward in collective bargaining negotiations that has not been addressed in good faith. I have no idea whatsoever what the objection is.”

Several state officials, including the president of the Hawaii State Teachers Association, agreed the vote could have a negative impact on the state’s $75 million federal Race to the Top funding.

“This really does put us in a bad place with regards to the Race to the Top funds,” said Senate Education Committee Chairwoman Jill Tokuda, D-Kaneohe, Kaneohe MCAB, Kailua, Enchanted Lake. “This happening definitely sets us back.”

Hawaii’s legislators had not yet voted to codify Race to the Top requirements, as other states have done, Tokuda said. They may consider doing so, she added.

Whatever action education and state officials — and teachers — decide to take needs to be done in “days, not weeks,” because federal officials are watching.

The U.S. Department of Education designated Hawaii as a high risk state a few weeks ago, when auditors noted the state DOE had not yet implemented measures proposed in its Race to the Top application.

Tokuda said the vote was a strong statement from teachers. She said she had heard teachers were concerned about the teacher evaluation measures being included in the contract, because the contract was not specific about how evaluations would be completed. Teachers also have financial concerns, she said.

Abercrombie said evaluation should not have been a sticking point, because it’s nothing new.

“What the contract did is illuminate more as to how that would be done and provides a lot more for teacher support,” he said.

The governor claimed he had reservations about including some of the Race to the Top requirements in the bargaining process, but did not seek to prevent it from happening.

Abercrombie and Tokuda both noted that HSTA officials were in favor of the proposed contract, and that the union may not have communicated the details of the plan effectively. That happened despite a 12-page HSTA document explaining the contract, the governor added.

“This got the unanimous support of the HSTA board,” he said. “If they’re not in communication with their members, that’s not something I or the superintendent or the board can resolve.”

Abercrombie did not address the possibility of a teacher strike in his news conference. Tokuda said she hoped teachers would not pursue a work stoppage.

“That would be devastating to be looking at a strike as an option,” she said. “I hope calmer and quicker heads prevail.”

HSTA President Wil Okabe repeated the need to “assess” the situation in an interview Friday morning about the teachers’ rejection of the contract.

“We need to go out to our members to find out why and what are their concerns to the best of our abilities,” he said.

What would he say to parents and community members who reacted to the vote by saying the teachers’ actions were all about money?

“We really can’t speculate as to why,” Okabe said. “They’re going to talk about money. They’re going to talk about evaluation.”

What would he say to students who had worries about their immediate educational future because of the vote?

“They’re going to be concerned,” Okabe said. “I would hope they would wait and see what the association is going to be doing.”

Can he speculate on the likelihood of a teacher strike, which he referenced in his comments on the HSTA website Thursday evening?

“No,” he said. “We would have to assess their concerns. That is one of the options. That’s not the only option.”

What impact will the vote have on the state’s federal Race to the Top funding?

“It will have an impact,” Okabe said. “I’m not going say it’s not. We have to assess this situation first before we can talk about it.”

One of the major deadlines the state missed was implementing financial incentives for teachers to work in low-income, low-performing communities of Waianae and Nanakuli on Oahu and Ka’u, Keaau and Pahoa on the Big Island. Okabe had anticipated that once the agreement was finalized, negotiations could begin on those incentives.

National education policy observers will be watching to see if the administration makes good on the threat.

“This is a bit of a double-dare to the U.S. Secretary of Education,” Frederick Hess, director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C., said Friday. “This is really a direct challenge to him. Hawaii has really become the poster child for implementation challenges for Race to the Top.”

The vote made it difficult to do anything but revoke the grant, said Michael J. Petrilli, executive vice president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a national education policy think-tank in Washington. “All eyes are on (U.S. Secretary of Education) Arne Duncan to see if he’s going to follow through on his tough statement that states are going to be held accountable for their promises.”

Hawaii’s state Senate issued a statement Friday urging for a “fair agreement” to be reached “to secure the Race to the Top funding that we are now in danger of losing.”

Under the rejected contract, teachers and other public employees would have continued to see a 5 percent pay cut as a cost-saving measure for the state. After June 30, 2013, teachers would have moved to a new salary schedule that recognized their years of service with the state Department of Education and moved to a revised teacher evaluation system that allows for annual 1 percent step increases.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.