Hawaii State's Furloughs on Public Education Hard on Everyone

On Tuesday, September 22, 2009, more than 80 percent of Hawaii's public school teachers voted to ratify their contract. According to a Honolulu Advertiser article, the ratification resulted in a two-year contract that includes a 7.9 percent pay-cut and 17 Fridays of school closures starting in October 2009, although the contract does guarantee no lay-offs for its entire duration. But it still causes big concerns for everyone involved. It also comes at a crucial time because many Hawaii schools are well below the national average of meeting the No Child Left Behind standards. Teachers, parents and students will all be affected.

How Teachers Will Be Affected

The last thing that teachers need during this down economy is a pay-cut. However, had they not ratified, the percentage and furlough days would have been a lot more, and lay-offs would have been inevitable. Still, this greatly affects many teachers and their families because it means a big drop in their income. Many will more likely look for part-time work, as with thousands of others who have been axed from other professions.

Another very big concern for all teachers is having less classroom time with the students. Less time with them means an amended curriculum and possibility of assigning more homework. With those seventeen days of school closure and without extending the school year, teachers will be pressured to pack in as much of their lesson plans as they can in a shorter amount of time. Seventeen may not seem like a lot to the lay person, but for teachers, that means over one hundred hours of instruction taken away from them. As a result, teachers will have to rely on parents to spend more one-on-one time going over school work.

How Parents Will Be Affected

For many parents, their schedules are already busy that they struggle to find time to spend with their children. But time with them will be even more important because with the school closures, parents will need to be more involved in their children's education in order to make up for the loss of classroom time. This may come as a struggle to those homes where the parents are non-English speaking. Even so, some parents may not even comply with teachers' requests to read to their children or go over school exercises with them. Whatever the reason, parents will need to sacrifice their time to be there even more for their children just as teachers are sacrificing their instruction time with them.

Child care may also become a problem, especially for working parents. Along with the extra days out of school, their children already have enough breaks in the school year that include holidays plus their quarterly intercessions. Should they take off or find child care for just one day? In another Honolulu Advertiser article, parent organizations have been trying to set up child care facilities on the days off and are looking to hire furlough teachers. As this may sound like a viable option, according to the article, a plan like this may violate ethics codes.

How the Children Will Be Affected

In the end, the children are getting the worst end of the bargain. Their education is compromised because of the state's budget shortfalls. No matter what kind of contract the teachers and legislature settled on, the children would be affected in every way. Less time in the classroom means decreased learning time. Decreased learning time could possibly mean more homework for them. These cuts may not entirely jeopardize their future, but for right now, their education and their opportunities to learn are taking a major shift. Who knows how it will affect them, only time will tell.

Resources:

Honolulu Advertiser, Sept. 23, 2009. " Hawaii teachers agree to 17 furlough days - a 7.9% loss in pay"

Honolulu Advertiser. Sept. 30, 2009. "Some Hawaii parents plan to hire teachers to work furlough days"