Lawmakers advocate renegotiating teacher contract to restore cu...

All you legislators....politicians.... .JUST SHADDUP!! and stop playing politics and catering to the public needs. You had your chance way before the contract negotiations and now all of you political hacks are endeavoring to play upon the public's wants and needs by making comments and recommendations etc......I have NO RESPECT FOR ANY OF YOU LEGISLATORS WHO HAVE NOT SHOWN ANY BACKBONE, CHARACTER or LEADERSHIP....RETURN YOUR @#$% 36% PAY RAISE FIRST THEN TALK STORY....YOU ARE ALL PHONIES AND I HOPE YOU CUT THIS OUT AND POST IT ON YOUR BULLETIN BOARD.

Stop playing politics? That's all this furlough is about. The kids doesn't matter...they can't vote. Why not an 8 percent pay cut? Because of the High 3 Retirement and nothing else. An 8 percent pay cut in the next two years (and maybe longer) equates to an 8 percent less retirement for the nonproductive admin paper shufflers and hangers on. Also apply to some of the senior teachers. It's all politics!!!

Here is an interesting article about California and seems like Hawaii is on the same path. "The Big-Spending, High-Taxing, Lousy-Services Paradigm" at www.city-journal.org

This talk of raiding various funds doesn't cut it. Once the funds are gone, they're gone forever and we are still stuck with the same problem of not enough money for too many state employees, be they teacher, administrator, truck driver or whatever. Unless the legislature is willing to wield the budget cutting axe the same time they raid funds then it will all be for naught. I call on the legislature to do this because they are the ones who are the stumbling block to real government reform.

The legislators, the governor, DOE and HSTA were all parties to this furlough "fall-out" and shame on all of them to now play the blame game.

They were all responsible for this 17 days per year furlough agreement so what's the problem now that the public has backlashed to their kids getting less school days.

This was a back-okole settlement that should have never happened. Of course, the HSTA resisted a across-the-board pay cut after the teachers have finally achieved some catch-up pay raises, so were the HSTA going to give back their raises-never!

So where is our fearless State leader (Lingle)to fix this mess? Why, she's in China & Hong Kong to promote Hawaii tourism and having a good time vacationing while the kids are out on furlugh Fridays....thank you, Mr. Lingle.

Flexo wrote:

This talk of raiding various funds doesn't cut it. Once the funds are gone, they're gone forever and we are still stuck with the same problem of not enough money for too many state employees, be they teacher, administrator, truck driver or whatever. Unless the legislature is willing to wield the budget cutting axe the same time they raid funds then it will all be for naught. I call on the legislature to do this because they are the ones who are the stumbling block to real government reform.

I somewhat agree. The only reason you would want to involve the government at this point in renegotiating anything is to get more money. That's the only purpose of having the government involved with the negotiations at all.

The DOE needs to look in house and address how they spend their money before they go crying back to the public for more.

It seems teachers can reneg on drug testing if they and their unions don't like it and now, it looks like they can also reneg on a contract after they pass and agree to it. I have never seen so many rule changes in the middle of a game because the loser lost. Such a lack of responsibility on the DOE/union side of the table.

Lolo head wrote:

The legislators, the governor, DOE and HSTA were all parties to this furlough "fall-out" and shame on all of them to now play the blame game.
They were all responsible for this 17 days per year furlough agreement so what's the problem now that the public has backlashed to their kids getting less school days.
This was a back-okole settlement that should have never happened. Of course, the HSTA resisted a across-the-board pay cut after the teachers have finally achieved some catch-up pay raises, so were the HSTA going to give back their raises-never!
So where is our fearless State leader (Lingle)to fix this mess? Why, she's in China & Hong Kong to promote Hawaii tourism and having a good time vacationing while the kids are out on furlugh Fridays....thank you, Mr. Lingle.

lol! Fix the mess? The mess has already been addressed. What you want is Lingle to bow to union pressure. I'm happy she's not.

If all the other state workers keep their days off and less pay, but the teachers are forced to work and take an 8% pay cut, that will be very bad for teacher morale.
With no money available, that is what "renegotiating" means.
If teachers have to take a plain 8% pay cut, all state workers should.

Oshiro is making like he going do something, reacting to the growing public outrage over Lingle and the Legislators malfeasance and collusion with the HSTA to cheat the Leaders of the future of Hawaii out of their basic education.

Talk, talk, talk, but no do nothing.

The Hammer and the Stick is due now.

Not the carrot and the stick.

And you teachers, if you no wise up, mandatory urinalysis every furlough friday, whether you like it or not.

Lolo head wrote:

So where is our fearless State leader (Lingle)to fix this mess? Why, she's in China & Hong Kong to promote Hawaii tourism and having a good time vacationing while the kids are out on furlugh Fridays....thank you, Mr. Lingle.

So what is the fix lolo head?

BTW, do you want the governor to just sit around wait for an inept system to recomend fixes or be proactive and actually do something, like have furlough days since she has NO OTHER options short of layoffs?

You think it is a mess she can fix, how about some suggestions short of just raising taxes and overfunding a junk system.

I think it's pretty funny that when economic times are good, people say "teaching...I'd never be a teacher...don't have the patience to work with kids, besides teachers don't get paid enough for all the crap they have to do. I can make way more money working in the private sector". Now that the economy is bad and businesses are suffering suddenly "teachers are overpaid, have too many days off, and aren't making enough sacrifices for the kids". You teachers can't seem to make anybody happy.

So here are our teachers still refusing to go back and renegotiate for the sake of the kids. They do not care about the kids, they care about themselves. Like when they agreed to drug testing just to get a raise and then refused their end of the contract.
Teachers: Our kids deserve better than you.

and the Lingle merry-go-round continues...

round and round!! up and down!!!

Wheeee!!!!!

This is true to Hamamoto's style, a political animal that does things politically correct, but not beneficial to the students. She is the head of this department (DOE), but only wants to make a point where the public will be outraged. If she seriously took moneys away from the various state offices and NOT the teachers and classrooms, the public wouldn't feel it, therefore she couldn't get more money to waste at her discretion. She reminds me of a bratty child that must have her way or will find a way to hurt others to prove her point.

TAKE THE PAYCUT
GET THE KEIKI BACK IN SCHOOL
GET DRUG TESTED
Then maybe we will believe and respect you.

I would still like answers as to why the DOE budget grew from $972 MILLION in FY 99-00 to $2.4 BILLION in FY 08-09, a 147 percent increase, while during this time period Hawaii public school enrollment and test scores have both decreased? The DOE, not the governor, designated instructional days as furlough days. In 2008, over $2 MILLION was spent for sabbatical leaves (taxpayer funded breaks), which typically last 6 months. So we are paying educators NOT to be in school. Then we have $1.7+ MILLION spent for
SUBSTITUTE clericals; $2.4 MILLION for SUBSTITUTE custodians. Over $60 THOUSAND worth of stolen goods while SUTSTITUTE security attendents consumed $264,736 in pay. Yet only $800,000 was spent for SUBSTITUTE teachers. Maybe the DOE/BOE priorities are somewhat askew, methinks.

satch7 wrote:

All you legislators....politicians.... .JUST SHADDUP!! and stop playing politics and catering to the public needs. You had your chance way before the contract negotiations and now all of you political hacks are endeavoring to play upon the public's wants and needs by making comments and recommendations etc......I have NO RESPECT FOR ANY OF YOU LEGISLATORS WHO HAVE NOT SHOWN ANY BACKBONE, CHARACTER or LEADERSHIP....RETURN YOUR @#$% 36% PAY RAISE FIRST THEN TALK STORY....YOU ARE ALL PHONIES AND I HOPE YOU CUT THIS OUT AND POST IT ON YOUR BULLETIN BOARD.

Spoken like a true Hawaii school teacher. Boy, you teachers are getting nasty. Here come your true colors. YIKES! Now I am not sure I even want you around my kids.

observer wrote:

I think it's pretty funny that when economic times are good, people say "teaching...I'd never be a teacher...don't have the patience to work with kids, besides teachers don't get paid enough for all the crap they have to do. I can make way more money working in the private sector". Now that the economy is bad and businesses are suffering suddenly "teachers are overpaid, have too many days off, and aren't making enough sacrifices for the kids". You teachers can't seem to make anybody happy.

that's right... and they've finally had enough. with this kind of lose-lose scenario, they've got nothing to lose if they just say the heck with it and take it out on the kids.

they try hard, the kids don't care, test scores go down, they get blamed.

there are those that DON'T work hard, test scores go down, they all get blamed.

they ratify a contract, nobody likes it, they get forced back to the table.

if they are forced to work on furlough fridays, can't blame them for just showing movies all day. if the kids don't want to learn, the kids aren't going to learn anything in a day, anyway.

best revenge the teachers could have is to keep the kids stupid, since they're going to get blamed for it anyway.

kids lose again wrote:

<quoted text>
Spoken like a true Hawaii school teacher. Boy, you teachers are getting nasty. Here come your true colors. YIKES! Now I am not sure I even want you around my kids.

i don't think they want your kids around either, if they have attitudes like yours.

start the layoffs wrote:

TAKE THE PAYCUT
GET THE KEIKI BACK IN SCHOOL
GET DRUG TESTED
Then maybe we will believe and respect you.

haters like you never will. just words, just like the politicians.