Federal judge may intervene if teachers walk out
| • | Public will be told how to prepare for strike |
By Alice Keesing
Advertiser Education Writer
A federal judge yesterday said he may step into the impending teachers strike if services to special education children are disrupted.
After weeks of speculation about how the Felix consent decree could affect a strike, U.S. District Judge David Ezra yesterday said that, while he does not want to interfere in the teachers' labor dispute, there are certain circumstances in which he could intervene.
"One of those circumstances may be present here, and, in fact, probably is present here," he said. "But even were the court to exercise that authority, I would do it in a very careful and measured way."
Teachers are set to walk out Thursday if their union does not reach an agreement with the state.
Ezra also reiterated his threat to take over special education in the state if the Legislature does not appropriate enough money to meet the needs of those students.
Ezra has the power to take over the education system or divert state money to ensure special-needs children are getting the services they are entitled to under the Felix decree, which he issued in 1994.
Both the court monitor and attorneys in the Felix case say they will monitor the effect of a strike on special-needs children.
"If a strike occurs on (Thursday), we're going to wait and assess the information that comes to us," said attorney Eric Seitz. "I assume the phone will start ringing off the hook the next day with parents who tell us about all the problems their kids are having."
Judge holds trump card
As soon as it appears special-needs children are being harmed or that the Department of Education is falling behind in its implementation of the consent decree, Seitz said he will present the information to Ezra.
"What the judge decides to do with it on that basis is up to him," Seitz said. "We're certainly not going to ever go in and ask him to issue an injunction against a strike."
The federal judge made his comments yesterday during a conference on a motion to grant Gov. Ben Cayetano more power in the Felix case.
Ezra warned that Felix should not be used as a "bargaining chip" by the governor, teachers or any other party in the contract dispute. It was partly for that reason, Ezra said, that he turned down Cayetano's request.
"I do not want to have this order, or any order I have issued, misconstrued as authority for the governor or anyone else, for that matter, to either block or interfere with the collective bargaining process," Ezra said.
The state's motion asked Ezra to give the governor the extraordinary powers already granted to schools chief Paul LeMahieu and state health director Bruce Anderson to help improve special education services.
"(The governor) would like to be able to make sure that he would be able to exercise his powers as the head of the executive branch, such that the departments would be able to say, based on the court order, we get to do this, and governor, you can't tell us what to do," said Deputy Attorney General Holly Shikada.
While turning back the request, Ezra said Cayetano already has "enormous powers as governor" and can use them to exert his influence in the Felix case.
Shikada later told The Advertiser that the move was not designed to take control from LeMahieu or Anderson. It also had nothing to do with the impending strike, she said.
"What (Cayetano) wants, I think, is to have a person come in and give a fresh look to (Felix), work with the departments to see what has been done already, try and figure out if there is anything from a statewide perspective that we can do that might help," Shikada said.
Takeover possibility near
Ezra also used yesterday's conference, in which he participated via telephone from the Mainland, to again warn legislators of the dire consequences if they do not provide the money to pay for special education services.
"This is not gamesmanship here," he said.
Last month, he warned legislators that, if they don't appropriate the money, he would have no choice but to step in and take control of special education in Hawai'i.
With the Health Department already out of Felix money and the Education Department soon to run out, court monitor Ivor Groves said that possibility is not far away.
