I was going to blog on another topic today, but after reading yesterday's article (with the same title as this post) in the Honolulu Advertiser, I decided to voice my serious concerns. Am I the only one that feels that Hawaii's children are being left behind? By the looks of the online comments, I don't think so. In fact, I believe that the vast majority of this State is disappointed with the actions of the Administration and the HSTA. What are they doing? Why are they not acting in the best interest of the children. Here are some excerpts, along with my comments, from the article:
"Hawaii State Teachers Association president Wil Okabe said that opting for furloughs on Fridays makes sense because of the substantial savings that will be gained and the need to be consistent with potential furlough days chosen by other state worker unions."
Makes sense? How does this make sense? Oh, I see. It is about savings and the need to be consistent with the other State worker unions. Childrens' education takes a back seat.
"The union and state could have prevented the loss of instructional days if they had scheduled furloughs on holidays and teacher planning days."
Now this makes sense!!
"Okabe added that most of a school's administrative or support staff are members of two other unions — the Hawaii Government Employee Association or the United Public Workers. If the HSTA had chosen a furlough day other than Friday, it would have made for a logistical nightmare, Okabe said."
Logistical nightmare versus our childrens' education. I would say that this is a no-brainer. I guess the HSTA president feels otherwise. We pay a lot of money for salaries of employees that are tasked with managing logistics. Nightmare? What about the fact that our children will be losing out? That's a nightmare.
"Marie Laderta, the state's chief negotiator, said the DOE did not have to schedule furloughs on instructional days. It could have opted for teacher pay cuts or made use of holidays, she said."
Then why did the State allow this to happen? Doesn't the State have to agree to the negotiated contract? Please stop the finger pointing, Ms. Laderta.
"Garrett Toguchi, chairman of the state Board of Education, said that the use of teacher planning days and professional development days were discussed, but ultimately those at the bargaining table decided against using them as furloughs."
Why??? Please tell us why!
"Toguchi said taking away the six noninstructional days from teachers would mean less time to plan curriculum and create strategies for boosting achievement."
Less time to plan curriculum and create strategies for 17 less days of instruction? Come on Mr. Toguchi. Do you really expect us to believe this?
" 'We demand a lot from our educators and put a lot of pressure on them to raise student achievement, raise test scores. ... Our educators need that time to get training, do planning and identify the needs of their students,' Toguchi said."
So are you saying that the way to raise student achievement and test scores is to reduce the number of instructional days for the students? Is that what you are saying? If so, please explain how you plan to do that.
"Okabe said the HSTA had considered using noninstructional days as furlough days, but those days would not have resulted in the kinds of cost savings that the state Department of Education was looking for."
So the HSTA and the Department of Education, who are tasked with educating the children of our State, have taken the position that cost savings is more important than education. This is quite evident by the quote of Mr. Okabe.
The actions of the leadership of this State is shameful. What is even more shameful is the lack of opposition from our legislators. Other than some meaningless comments, nothing is being done to address this very serious issue. Let's all band together and call for immediate action by our leaders. We must not let this happen to our children. Call your legislators, both local and State. Let them know how you feel. We don't have much time. Thank you.
If our elected officials had their children and grandchildren in our public schools, furloughs would never have happened and our schools would be properly funded. During election time, ask candidates where their children go to school and how many times they visit their schools in their district. Let's stop electing politicians who do not have a vested interest in public education.
ReplyDeleteAs far as I am concerned, cutting the school year by 17 days deprives all public school kids of an appropriate public education. The kids with special needs, however, have a federal right to it.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that cutting the school year by 17 days has any support in this state is very troubling.
The irony is that for every teacher furloughed, twenty or so families will be disrupted and many of them will have to pay to take care of and educate their kids on furlough days(directly or by taking time off from work).
This is an irrational way to cut a budget. For every dollar saved by furloughs, there will be a corresponding cost, both short term and long term. By long term I mean the cost to the State of having a less productive workforce and the cost to rehabilitate and incarcerate those who will fall through the cracks that have been created.
This furlough business is a classic application of penny-wise, Pound foolish.
Let's direct our focus on Lingle. The woman who pushed this double edged sword into education's face. either way, cuts or furlough, education would drop. with the 8% pay cut, teachers would have to find another job, hence affecting curriculum and instruction. would you still work your regular schedule if you took that kind of cut? Back to Lingle...Why did we put so much focus on education? $235million prison? continuous road work, couldn't just raise taxes? always protecting her businesses i guess. i disagree with both furlough and 8% cut concepts. every state worker across the board could suffer maybe a 3-5% cut. but why education? word on the public school streets is she's "hated public schools" as her background was private. it sure shows, now our kids are suffering...maybe that prison is being set up for them!
ReplyDeleteyes direct it the questions to lingle who has committed such offense as the super fiasco, the ceded land cunnundrum and now, to furlough or not to furlough? what is wrong with that chick? in another country, in another time she'd be lynched, tard n feather run out of town, you name it. i hope she runs for office and the people shut her down. her business as usaul approach has created such hardship; it's amazing she hasn't been impeached.
ReplyDeleteI guess the kids don't really need an education for the service jobs available.Really, if you have a whole bunch of critical thinkers, they won't want to clean the vacation rentals that have replaced their community.
ReplyDeleteI firmly believe that beginning with the Gov. Lingle and the rest of the elected officials all of them should be made to mandatorily volunteer their positions for a year to balance the budget. It was the Govenor's decision to spend a lot of money to stop the superferry etc. Although many opposed for obvious reasons, she still went ahead and spent the money. So now the public pays all the way down to the children. It's the same ol, same ol with politicians, they promise to do good, but in actuality, THEY LIE...IT'S ALL ABOUT THEMSELVES.
ReplyDeleteMy son is in public school. I am against everything that is going on. How can our "leaders" decide what is best and how to go about things, if they are not looking at the bigger picture? My child is struggling. He is in after school help programs. Because of our "leaders" choice to take away school days, my child's school is taking that program away! These cut backs that are happening within the school system needs to stop. Why am I sending my kid to school if only to have his education broken by the hands of those whom have made it LAW for him to be there? Why should we all continue to do so? We continue to do so, because we want the best for ALL OUR CHILDREN! Does these so called "leaders" not want what's best for our children? The economy may be in bad shape, but why punish the schools? My child's school already had to "make cut backs" with a few of it's teachers. Our school no longer recieves the funds to have a Physical Education Instructor! The school board had to make that choice based on what was given to them. Is that fair? NO! Nothing about any of this is fair. If one person's voice has made a difference in our past, imagine, what many voices can do. If we do not stand up for our children and the school system now, how can we expect them to stand up for themselves later? There are many ideas floating around. If our ELECTED LEADERS were to have the trust in those who have given them their position, then they would actually be doing what we voted them to do. Stand up for those who can't! But at the end of the day, I will still pray for everyone. Even if they choose not to do the right thing! I believe they will have to face someone, who did stand up for those who was not able to stand up for themselves. When that time comes, I wonder who will stand and be the voice for these "leaders".?!
ReplyDeleteWhy did this happen? Simple answer: Poor financial planning. Poor use of educational funds. We need to put people who put our students 1st in the key decision maker positions.
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