Furlough Days

[jade]

I Just received the revised school schedule to reflect the furlough Fridays. The next time my kids will go to school for a full week will be Feb 22 - Feb 26. They only have a total of four full weeks for the rest of the year. They will still have half days on Wed. Planning and collaboration days/teacher work days with no students, and waiver days. Not to mention all of the holidays. So they will be going to school for 3 1/2 days for most of the year. This is really sad.

[Hotzcatz]

Yup. That means you will have to take over some of their education if you want to have kids that know how to read, write and be able to do even rudimentary math. While you are at it, encourage traits such as dependability, honesty and stick-to-it-tiveness. Actually, a lot of folks already do this and they even seem to enjoy it. You could inquire of folks who homeschool as to some pointers.

---

"I like yard sales," he said. "All true survivalists like yard sales."
Kurt Wilson

[Carey]

I found it amazing that it seems that the lawmakers in Honolulu are just now realizing how this is making their constituents feel, and that at the end of last week they were scrambling to find other ways, this is after a summer of talks, negotiations with unions & every thing els to get to this point....

Only NOW are they realizing the impact this will have on the Children, their parents, the state workforce AND the state education....

That alone is a sad statement of the reality our state elected officials live in. I added state, as our county officials seemed to be very responsive to the fact that this would affect the county.

[pslamont]

The whole fourlogh plan is one of the most stupid approaches to budget issues I can imagine. The education system here is already one of the worst in the country. Our kids need MORE hours in school, not less. I am sure my solution would be most unpopular, but I say raise the 4.2% tax to 6% and keep the schools open even longer than they are now. I wonder how our federal monies for education will be reduced as the kids are not in school the required number of hours/days a year with this new plan.....

I want to be the kind of woman that, when my feet
hit the floor each morning, the devil says

"Oh Crap, She's up!"

[mella l]

Not only does the short sightedness extended to the election cycles, it will impact the future of these children's lives, therefore OUR lives as well on down the line. As far as the federal dollars being impacted, I wonder if that even entered the equation, let alone the discussions at the state level? Perhaps they thought other federal funds would be increased for energy and building and it would be ok.

This whole concept is like a snow ball running down hill, picking up speed and weight. Luckily for the cafeteria and janitorial staffs from what I read they will be untouched. Go figure.

mella l

[missydog1]

It is totally unfair to push parents towards home schooling. My son is a single parent now and his brother is having to forego work in order to be there on the furlough days because there's no day care. My son who is a parent has built up a great reputation at his job for being reliable, and now due to this furlough thing he could lose his job because it's so hard to juggle the schedule. In order to get through this week, and so family members could keep major commitments, my grandson had to be with me for four nights. While that is fine with me, he had to miss seeing his only parent during that time because we live on opposite sides of the island, which is bad for my grandson.

Meanwhile my older son is broke, can't take on jobs, and his car is falling apart. All because there is not enough coverage between school and day care for a parent to hold a full time job. Even two parent families may well need to have both parents working. Homeschooling is all very well for families who can make ends meet.

On top of that, there are so many poorly educated parents on the island, who wants their children to be home schooled? We should be aiming for the next generation to get a better education. I don't think that many parents are capable of providing an education for their children. My own parents would have been capable (my dad gave me lots of help with math and chemistry, for example), but I would have hated being home with my mom all day. I was already enough of a bookworm. I needed the socialization opportunities that I got at school.

[Seeb]

This is a scam by the administrators on Oahu, to do something so onerous that people will agree to a tax increase. they could have easily cut the budget 10% without effecting the kids or teachers or janitors. As far as i know this is the only state in the country without local school boards. The corruption of the current system is a civil rights abuse. But it will take take someone with a lot of juice to take them on ( you need someone like Oprah to take up the cause ).

[JerryCarr]

While I understand the anxiety and frustration parents must feel, I agree with Seeb that the "solution" to the financial deficit put through by the DOE and the union was a set-up to extract revenue (tax increase) to maintain a very dysfuntional status quo. If one looks at the Hawaii schools' history, one quickly sees that throwing more money at the problem of poor performance has not worked. Making no gestures toward eliminating administrative positions and leaving at least six paid, non-teaching days in the schedule while cutting class time does not suggest serious reform OR economizing.

The union through their proxy, the NEA, spent over $300,000 to defeat the Constitutional Convention proposition on the last state-wide ballot. What does that tell you about their intentions? Only a top to bottom reform with more local control will change things. Meanwhile, they expect us to put more money into a failed enterprise, and they see the Charter Schools as a threat when they are about the only bright spot in the whole picture. Enough already!

[jade]

I agree with you Seeb. They are going to say that is why the kids can't pass the state tests. They will have an excuse. When the kids fail and the media finally reports on the situation with the schools they will get federal money (like California). Who know how long that will be. I feel that they need to adjust the administration not the teachers. I do believe that the teachers should also be ok with random drug test too. I know this is not a popular belief. I feel if you work for the government or state that they should have random testing. Alot of jobs require random drug testing and it is a privilege to work not a right. Back to the topic.

I have a full time job and I already supplement my kids education with extra work and help them on their homework. They pass all of the state test and score in the top percentage. I am very blessed. However, by having the extra days off just means I have to double up on the work I am already giving them. It does create a very stressful environment. It is also confusing for the kids. I tell them how to do things one way and the teacher tells them another. I agree with Kathy. There are so many different situations you can't say everyone should or is capable of doing this.

I wanted to let everyone know what 17 furlough days off will mean. I knew what to expect but when you see it in black and white and figure out that they are only going to school for 3 1/2 days it is just crazy. What do they think is going to happen? It is sad thay they are using children as pawns in there game of chess. Education is so important. Most of the school are failing to begin with.

[punafish]

Reminds me of an old Woody Allen joke: two elderly ladies are at a Catskill Mountain resort. One says to the other, "The food at this place is terrible." The other answers, "Yes, and the portions are so small."

That's what we're talking about here: a terrible school system, and now we're complaining we don't have enough days of bad education. (As Jerry said, charter Schools are the exception.)

I totally empathize with the parents' situation. It's tough to balance a job when you've got young children at home. What really saddens me is that our collective expectations have been reduced to simply relying on our school system for daycare since we really can't rely on them for anything else. (Some might argue that they're not even good at daycare.)

What angers me most is that the DOE is so corrupt they weren't willing to cut the many, many, many non-value added costs that burden the current school system. How selfish. Until we throw the rascals out, nothing of substance will change. Sadly, I don't see that happening anytime soon. We need more charter schools!