10-17-2009, 08:26 AM
quote:
"I am pissed at what they did with this furlough mess and the teachers have to take responsibility. Obviously, they used this terrible schedule of furlough days as a negotiating tactic...
Truth be told, teachers didn't find out the actual dates of the proposed furloughs until the evening of Friday, September 18th (if, in fact, they happened to check their e-mail and/or HSTA-website that night). Otherwise they learned of it through the media over the weekend, or when they got to school the following Monday, Sept 21st, just as everyone else.
Believe me, 99% were shocked as anyone in the general public.
And many of them jetted off e-mails and scathing letters to the powers-that-be.
And they didn't take the Tuesday, Sept 22nd ratification-vote lightly either.
In the case of the more-experienced/veteran teachers, it was either Vote-"No" and see Lingle and her henchmen lay a bunch of their colleagues off ...or accept the dreaded furloughs.
And in the case of those teachers who'd only been recently hired, it was clearly their jobs and their families' welfare that were in immediate peril. Not much of a decision there, I wouldn't imagine.
As far as taking the 17 furlough days as a block at the end of the year?
Granted, that sounds like an easy/logical fix...
However it wouldn't have worked: it would have jammed up retirement-benefits for all 13,000+ teachers.
According to the Honolulu Advertiser:
"Hamamoto said the state looked at scheduling furlough days on holidays or teacher planning days. Some teachers also suggested taking furlough days in a block at the end or before the start of the school year, so teachers could get other jobs or go to school to enhance their credentials.
But Hamamoto said that the state could not retroactively take back holidays and that teachers have to work a certain number of days a month to qualify for benefits."
So.
Now everyone's stuck with it.
And everyone's got to make the best of it.
Until such time as the economy turns around or dollars are infused into the system somehow.
The teachers and their families (and their co-workers and their families) have to learn to live on a good bit less for awhile.
As do the families in the rest of the community.
---malolo
http://costofwar.com/