Teacher bonus dispute continues

By Jaymes Song
Associated Press

Paying public schoolteachers the bonuses they believe they're owed would drain limited resources and force some education programs to be cut, Gov. Ben Cayetano said yesterday.

The state and the Hawai'i State Teachers Association are in a battle over a provision that grants a 3 percent bonus to teachers with advanced degrees. The state contends the bonus is a one-year deal, while the union believes the bonus is to be paid in both years of the two-year contract.

"To find $14 million or so is going to be a terrible hardship on the Department of Education," Cayetano said. "It's going to have to come out of somewhere. It's going to come out of programs that are serving our children right now."

The dispute over the contract's language is jeopardizing the settlement that ended the three-week teachers' strike in April. The contract that was negotiated and ratified still has not been signed.

The signing delay has also held up a $1,100 retention bonus that returning teachers were to receive in their July paychecks.

The state said it has proposed that both sides sign off on all the provisions of the contract except for the disputed bonus provision, which would be part of a separate contract. Teachers would then get their raises, which total 16 percent over the two years, and the retention bonus.

HSTA executive director Joan Husted said last week that Cayetano rejected a union proposal that both sides sign off on all but the bonus provision and continue negotiations on the provision.

She said yesterday she had not received anything new from the state that would indicate a change in Cayetano's position.

"We're encouraging the state to do it as quickly as possible because lots of stories are circulating out in the field, and the teachers are getting angrier by the minute," Husted said.

HSTA is concerned that if the bonuses are taken out of the contract, they may never be included again.

"You can't have your cake and eat it, too," Cayetano said. "We have a disagreement on this one particular item in the contract ... We would never have the contract had we known that they were looking at two years, and we're looking at one."

Cayetano said it was "pretty clear" that it was a one-year bonus, which would have cost the DOE about $6 million. The union contends it was clear that the bonus was for two years.

"That $6 million was there on the HSTA's ratification flier," he said. "So it's not like the teachers didn't know it was $6 million. They knew. They had every reason to know."

The HSTA has threatened legal action against the state or another strike.