from HSTA e-newsletter

GOVERNOR’S ATTEMPT TO DISOWN FURLOUGHS IS DISINGENUOUS

Blaming the Department of Education Ignores Her Control of HGEA Contract

Posted October 24, 2009 - HSTA Member Website

Honolulu—HSTA President Wil Okabe responded to Governor Lingle’s remarks to the news media on October 23, the first furlough day for HSTA members, along with DOE employees in five HGEA bargaining units who are essential to operating the state’s public schools.

Okabe stated, “In her press conference on the first furlough day, Governor Lingle has attempted to re-write history. As the saying goes, success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan. And apparently the governor wants to disown the furloughs she once championed and deny responsibility for them, now that they have turned out to be unpopular and the entire state realizes how detrimental they are to our children and our entire K-12 educational system.

“The state’s teachers would like to remind the governor of several things:
• Governor, you were the one who originally called for furloughs. It was you who initially said you wanted all state workers to be furloughed three days a month or 36 days for a year.
• When you were not able to get the DOE employees furloughed, you restricted the DOE funding by 14 percent, as was noted at the time, the same amount that would have been cut through a three-days-a-month furlough.
• After you refused to bargain on teacher pay, HSTA began negotiating with the DOE and BOE. When the BOE and DOE reached an agreement with HSTA, calling for an eight percent pay cut in the form of two furlough days a month, you and your team reviewed the agreement in great detail. And while you asked for changes to the agreement, you never raised any objections to the furlough days.”

Okabe continued, “On the first furlough day, after angry parents, students and community members marched on the Capitol and rallied at Noelani School, criticizing the governor’s furloughs, she said, ‘Looking back on it now, I assumed that they would do what was in the best interest of the students, and I don’t think they did. I don’t think their decision was in the best interest of the students.’

“Governor, it wasn’t ‘their decision.’ It was always your decision. Your decision to call for furloughs. Your decision to cut the school budget 14 percent and force the DOE to furlough teachers and students. Your decision to sign the contract that implemented the furlough days. No one forced you to sign it.”

HGEA contract also shuts down schools
Okabe added, “The governor’s actions before and after the HSTA contract ratification belie her claims that she had second thoughts, especially her contention that things would have been different had she controlled the DOE. Neither the DOE nor the Board of Education was involved in the HGEA negotiation. Yet that contract, which she just signed, has exactly the same effect as the HSTA contract when it comes to closing schools.

“The HGEA contract was negotiated by the governor, her cabinet officials, and her negotiations team. In that contract, the governor agreed to furlough cafeteria and custodial supervisors, school and departmental office clerks and their supervisors, all of the principals and vice-principals, as well as all of the social workers, occupational therapists and other professionals who work with the special needs children in our schools.

“Our schools cannot operate without any of these employees,” Okabe noted. “Yet, just a few days ago, the governor signed the contract that furloughs all of them, just like the teachers. But now, she would like the parents and voters of Hawaii to think the HSTA contract was an oversight and not the end result of the furlough plan she designed and part of a pattern that she set in motion when she announced her plan in June.

“Let’s be honest. The governor got the furloughs and layoffs she asked for. And now that the community is angry, she wants to point the finger at others. Unfortunately for the governor, everything she has said and done regarding furloughs is public record. The facts speak for themselves.”