Hawai'i cannot sustain strikes much longer

A sense of urgency has come to the statewide public education strike, and that is a very good thing.

This is quickly bleeding beyond the borders of a specific labor-management dispute into a matter that impacts the entire state.

It must be settled, and quickly.

Hawai'i's already-fragile image as a good place to set up business and raise a family is being harmed as word of this strike reaches the rest of the nation. Our hopes for any kind of long-term economic rebound depend on an education system that is known to be moving toward excellence.

A lingering strike crushes any ability to promote such a reputation.

In addition, the strike is beginning to do real harm to the basic work of our public school and university system. Education is suffering. At some point, this semester of education will be left with a permanent scar.

Talks between the unions and the state have been on two tracks — formal and informal. The informal talks have often been more productive since, in that setting, any idea is a good idea, worth considering.

The two sides must use the informal track to begin collaborating on thoroughly outside-the-box thinking on how their differences can be resolved.

From our perspective, the focus must not be on money per se, but on new approaches to education at both the public school and university level that will bring Hawai'i firmly into the 21st century.

At the public school level, this could be anything from redefining the role of teachers to experimenting with complete school autonomy. It could mean allowing teachers to develop their own curricula or methods of teaching.

It could mean abandoning existing union work rules, civil service constriction and even statutory limitations for a new, creative, collaborative, forward-thinking education system.

If a truly innovative approach to public school education is achieved, there should be no quibbling about the need to pay for it, whether the package ends up as a 14 percent raise, a 22 percent raise or even more.

Gov. Cayetano has talked about using this pay raise to "buy" changes in productivity and professional growth. If those changes are dramatic enough, the state must be ready to pay for them.

But with what? The Legislature says it has found enough money in the budget to fund a reasonable settlement for the teachers and university faculty. On behalf of education, it is a good bet the public would be willing to swallow some cuts elsewhere.

But the taxpayers deserve a full accounting of what they would have to give up in order to put education funding truly at the front of the line.

Lawmakers must also be candid about the economic assumptions they are using to come up with their budget. The economy both on the Mainland and in Japan is teetering. That can have serious tax ramifications in Hawai'i.

We must not commit to spending money we may not have. It would also be dangerous to get out of the current impasse by buying relief out of one-time sources of cash — special funds and the like.

What is needed is a systemic change to our education system and systemic ways of paying for that change.

Each and every person in Hawai'i has a vital stake in seeing these disputes settled, not in a patchwork way, but in a way that will set public education on a firm path toward excellence.

This strike must be settled, and soon.