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Furlough Fridays Update

Nov 16, 2009 | By James Koshiba

A week ago, the chances of stopping Furlough Fridays before the end of the 2009-10 school year seemed to be dwindling. Events of the past few days, though, prove that the power of people making their voices heard can have unexpected results.

Yesterday, the Governor announced her willingness to back a solution similar to the one we've been discussing here, and end Furlough Fridays starting January 1, 2010. Her plan: The Legislature convenes a Special Session to authorize using the Rainy Day Fund to cover some Fridays; the teachers' union swaps non-instructional days for teaching days to cover the rest; and she will sign off on the whole thing.

The last part of this statement is the important one. Yesterday was the first time the Governor publicly backed the use of Special Funds by the Legislature. It was also the first time any of the parties – Governor, union, or Legislature –said publicly what they'd be willing to do without first demanding action or commitment from the others.

Prior to the Governor's statement, Legislative leaders were reluctant to call members into a Special Session because there was no guarantee the Governor would approve use of Special Funds (although they could have overridden her veto with enough votes, if necessary).

Without more funds, the teachers' union was unwilling to renegotiate the contract which cut the school year 17 days short. Today, union head Wil Okabe indicated that ‘this is the kind of proposal that will get us back to the negotiating table.'

Rallies by members on Kauai and Hawaii Island, petition gathering on Molokai and Maui, students from Kealakehe High School weighing in, the school walk-ins and sit-ins, the media coverage, the support we lent to leading groups like Hawaii Education Matters and Save Our Schools, the circulation of your ideas, suggestions and comments to lawmakers - all helped make this happen.

Specifically, the work had three results:

First, it demonstrated to the Governor (who was watching very closely) that there was widespread citizen outrage about the situation, and broad demand for immediate action from across the islands.

Second, it showed the people were willing to step up and speak out.  This put pressure on all the parties to keep working toward a solution. Despite public statements that suggested an unwillingness to compromise, behind the scenes some were apparently considering how they might move forward.

Third, the effort we put into urging the Legislature to convene a Special Session should speed their progress now. In six weeks time, our work helped tip the balance of opinion within the Capitol. We helped convince more than half the Senate and nearly half of the House that this was a good option even before the Governor indicated she would support it. Now that she has, a Special Session seems the logical next step.

Still, we must be poised to speak up for kids.  There is no guarantee the Legislature will act. House and Senate Leaders may say the budget picture is so bleak that we should wait until the Regular Session in January to tackle all issues at once. They may blame the Governor for blocking tax increases which could have balanced the budget in the first place, or the teachers' union for negotiating away school days.  Or, the teacher's union may say they've sacrificed enough, and refuse to trade planning days for teaching days.

There may be kernels of truth in these concerns. Yet, none is a good reason to keep kids from school any longer. This is not about a special interest group, the unions, a pet government program, about politics, or about who is at fault – it's about kids.

More announcements are likely to follow from the union and the Legislature in the days ahead.  We should listen to alternative proposals with open minds, but we cannot stand for solutions that involve waiting for other parties to act first. And, as positions are revealed, we may once again need to urge our leaders in the right direction. That is as it should be – that is our democratic kuleana.

We must remember that even if Furlough Fridays are restored, the work of improving education has only just begun. We must take responsibility for improving it.  The fight to put kids first must go on – it must go in our own homes  in efforts to be better parents and mentors to children, it must go in community efforts to get involved with our neighborhood schools, and it must go on at the State Capitol, where we can remind our leaders how important our keiki are. 

Our effort must go on beyond Furlough Fridays and emerge as an organized movement with grassroots leadership for improving education in Hawaii.

We should be proud of all we have accomplished so far. Even more, we should be excited about what we can achieve for Hawaii's keiki in the time to come.

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