Hawai'i’s public school parents have just taken a big sucker punch with the news that their children are due to lose 17 instructional days on the academic calendar, days that teachers will be furloughed as a result of their new union contract. It’s painful, especially considering all the sobering news of recent months about schools falling short of federal achievement benchmarks.

They’re responding with everything from anger over what they see as government failure to meet its obligations, to sheer panic over how they can ensure the supervision and education of their children on days when, now more than ever, they can’t afford to miss a paycheck.
Proposals are flying everywhere, but practical solutions will require a cool, levelheaded approach.
Some have proposed ambitious school initiatives to hire teachers on their days off, an idea that is well-intentioned but presents unforeseen consequences.
For its part, the Hawaii State Teachers Association is talking about ways to mitigate the effect on students, and the Department of Education is pulling together lists of options for solutions, at least in the short term.
All of this constitutes energy that should be corralled into a collaborative effort to craft solutions. And “collaborative” means that all the stakeholders have to be at the table.
In the coming weeks before the first “Furlough Friday” on Oct. 23, education officials, as well as the governor, should convene a working group to make sure everything possible is being done to preserve as many instructional days as possible.
Some interesting ideas already have emerged, but should be more carefully honed through such a joint discussion.
Among them is a proposal that the teachers waive some or all of their working days set aside for planning, conferencing and other nonclassroom tasks. Six are allotted for the school year. As much as possible, these should be used for teaching days instead, offsetting the loss of the furlough days.
But the decision to waive these planning days, which are provided by contract, will require teachers’ votes. Wil Okabe, HSTA president, said many teachers support this idea, although schools decide individually how to schedule these days, and some schools already have used up some of their planning days.
Some parents propose hiring furloughed teachers to help their children on the 17 Fridays but now are being advised, by education officials as well as PTSA and other parent groups, that this might be more complicated — and costly — than they realized. The state ethics code bars teachers from privately schooling their own students, and they are bound by other regulations if they become day-care providers for this purpose.
Better-informed solutions might emerge if all the players met to clarify rules and laws surrounding furloughs and the contract, working together to find the best approach.
Many residents are outraged by the union settlement, charging that this outcome should have been avoided. They’re right: A settlement by all public employee unions struck many months ago, when the budget deficit was smaller, might have saved enough revenue to avert this draconian cut in services.
That never happened. The budget restrictions became dire, most of the budgetary fat already had been trimmed and the HSTA had few options other than to forge a deal its members could accept. Taking the entire budgetary hit in the form of straight salary cuts was an untenable choice.
The mission must now be focused on students and mitigating the loss of instruction days through creative solutions — and collaboration. Cooler heads must prevail, for the sake of the kids.