Editorial
Teacher dispute just keeps getting worse

Just when the dispute over the new teacher's contract looked as if it could not get any worse, it did.

The state and the teachers' union were already at loggerheads over the meaning of the contract — particularly the part that offered a pay sweetener to teachers with advanced degrees or certificates.

That was bad enough. But now the two sides are fighting over whether there even is a binding contract at all. That issue may be headed for the courts.

Can we bring this to a halt right now? This dispute is poisoning the morale of teachers and it is souring the atmosphere of cooperation and trust that is crucial if we are ever to achieve true education reform.

Gov. Cayetano says there is no agreement in effect because he (and the Board of Education) have not yet signed off on it. Vernon Yu, attorney for the Hawaii State Teachers Association, says the contract is binding because the teachers ratified it. By law, that is all that is required, he said.

These are fine legal points but hardly germane to the central goal, which is putting the contract to bed and memories of the teachers' strike behind us.

To accomplish this — as we have said before — both sides will have to give a little.

The teachers will have to accept that the extra money for advanced degrees is, in fact if not in name, a one-time bonus that may not be repeated in subsequent contracts. The union wishes to treat the money as a differential, which suggests it is at least in theory something that is built permanently into the salary base of those teachers who have master's degrees or professional certificates.

Cayetano and Superintendent Paul LeMahieu have already made it clear they would rather spend such extra cash to reward performance rather than straightforward academic advancement or seniority.

The state and the Board of Education, meanwhile, should accept that the contract ratified by the teachers clearly offered the professional supplement in "each" year of the two-year contract. That's what they thought they were approving and that's what they ought to get.

This is an expensive admission, surely. But the extra $10 million to $15 million will buy labor peace and put both sides back on track toward what should be everyone's goal: building an education system we can be proud of.