I posed the following question to Senator Hooser on his Facebook page:
Senator, is the 17-day HSTA furlough a done deal? Is there a chance that it won't happen? I understand that the Governor has to approve the ratification. Is that true. Thank you.
His response was:
The furlough is a done deal unless additional funding can be secured. Our options seem to be limited to using most/all of the money now in the Hurricane fund or raising taxes. The only near term way that I can see to come up with the immediate funds needed to stop or reduce the furlough days would be a one day special session to transfer the hurricane money to education. Long term funding would then have to come from a tax increase or even more severe cuts to all other programs...including health and human services. What do you think the public would support? As most I hope know and understand, the legislature's role is limited with regards to collective bargaining and we were not involved in the negotiations or the final agreement at all.
I followed up with:
Is anyone proposing a special session? It seems to me that all options should be explored before the school year gets shortened. I question why the DOE doesn't use the waiver and planning days for the furloughs. This would not affect the kids as much. Just a thought.
He responded with:
A special session normally is not called unless there is pre-agreement between all parties and that includes governor. Do you think the public will support spending the Hurricane Fund to eliminate the teacher furlough days? That is probably the main question.
So the questions to all of you are:
Do you support spending the Hurricane Fund to eliminate the teacher furlough days?
Do you feel that all means have been exhausted and the last resort is to furlough the public school teachers?
I have set up a poll on the top of my blog. Please vote. Thank you.
The children education should not have even been considered and to put the teachers through that by asking them to vote was simply ridiculous. Through these rough economic times no one wants to be laid off. Don't forget that elections are next year because no one else will forget it. Hawaii has voted the same way for decades but I'm willing to bet that this move is the one that will change that. In our hearts no matter race, color, religion, etc.... you don't mess with our KIDS. Aloha Mel
ReplyDeleteI believe there are other solutions. I was for a 1% tax increase across the board for everyone. We travel and pay our destination tax rate why can't Hawaii do the same?
ReplyDeleteDipping into the Hurricane fund could be a solution but it would have to be for all the state workers and not just the teachers.
Yes Election year is coming up and eveyone is keeping a very close eye on this. It will be interesting to say the least.
Keep up the good work Mel....
Aloha Mel, I propose the elected officials, beginning with the Governor VOLUNTEER their positions for a minimum of 1 year. Everyone talks about how important it is to VOLUNTEER, WHY SHOULD OUR ELECTED OFFICIALS BE EXEMPT..
ReplyDeleteTHINKING OUT LOUD. APPRECIATE THIS AVENUE TO DISCUSS IMPORTANT ISSUES. YES, WE MUST REMEMBER eLECTION YEAR IS COMING UP SOONER THAN WE THINK.
We could bring in volunteers to teach the kids, or have art and music days on the days school will be closed, many of us would volunteer, and it could be done in the classroom, all the facilities there, just missing the teachers.
ReplyDeleteShame on Hawaii, after being in an upswing and having so much money all these years, the first year of a downturn they are needing to cut education and give the kids off. Maybe they will learn more not in school. What happened to the required number days of school?
Govenor, what you would rather spend money on tourist promotion than educate our children. That says it all.
To me the Governor, Pat Hamamoto, and the Legislatures are "playing" with our(the public) emotions....they took the low road and axed our kids...they made a statement that says education is NOT important, we'll cut them (the kids) first....now that we got the public's attention, now let's see if we get their support to raise taxes.. that's BS!!! And when they chose the furlough days...they didn't choose the shortest day of instructional time during the week (usually Wednesdays) they chose Fridays! Three day weekends yeah!!! Not much school events happen on Wednesdays, but do they care about our kids? Do they worry about social events that these kids will miss out because Fridays were chosen? It won't matter to parents, we still have to find child care...Wed or Fridays?! But I guess if they don't worry about our kids education, they surely won't worry about their social school events!!! I feel we will never recover these loss school days....at the expense of our kids future the State is making ill decisions and rushing into solutions. Thank you Mel for being our kids voice....they should have a say, afterall they are the ones with the most to lose. Pat Hamamoto should be ashamed of herself...she didn't stand up to our kids! She didn't do her job. It is her responsibility to fight for our kid's education, instead she axed them!
ReplyDeletealoha mel,
ReplyDeletethnx for checking w/ gary about options. the decisions by lingle and her administration are deserving of the criticism. i hope all of your readers will remember this when she runs for office in the future. she has consistantly dropped the ball and sells out the people and the aina in order to remain a fiscal conservative. her values (and decisions)stink.
Its NOT a 7.9 % pay cut!!!!!! If the teachers WORKED the 17 Days then it would be a pay cut. But they CHOSE to take 17 days off and not teach the KEIKI..... where is the pay cut? Now if they chose to work the 17 days THEN it would be a paycut. The only losers here are the KEIKI and then next year everyone else when the GET goes up. CUT the special interest programs and stop spending money.
ReplyDeletemel what happened to the bailout money that we got for the education budget? i think we should bring a civil lawsuit to lingle for misspending money. our kids are in trouble and she is no where to be found. i don't hear her saying that she cares about our children no she's worried about tourist and traveling out of state to promote tourism. that's very costly. where did that money come from? she can spend money for trips but not for our kids education? one word for you lingle "selfish" where is your budget cut. you guys bring in triple digit incomes and dare to think that your not getting paid enough or that cutting $1k out of your salary is alot try living on that or even less a month. like alot of us are doing. that would solve the problem. do the math if they're making $130k a year drop that pay down to $15k/yr= savings of $115k wow that's on one person. how many do we have in office???
ReplyDelete