Posted on: Tuesday, January 15, 2002

HSTA wants schools to have taxing power

By Walter Wright
Advertiser Staff Writer

The Hawai'i State Teachers Union said yesterday that Hawai'i's teachers should be the best paid in the nation and that the Board of Education should have taxing power to raise money for schools.

Those were two of of the heaviest lines in the union's "Blue Print for Public Education," revealed by HSTA President Karen Ginoza on the eve of the 2002 state legislative session.

Ginoza, in a press conference held in a Roosevelt High School classroom, said: "This state and our students cannot afford to wait any longer."

The state is spending about $1.2 billion a year on public education today.

Ginoza said improving public education is key to economic growth in a Hawai'i, which has learned the cost of heavy reliance on tourism in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

But she said the union is not ready to ask the Legislature this session to propose a constitutional amendment giving the Board of Education taxing power. The legislative session opens tomorrow.

She also indicated that saving health insurance programs for her members will be a high priority in the face of threatened budget cuts.

The state spends about $6,391 on education per student in public schools, compared to a national average of $7,079, the union's executive director, Joan Lee Husted said. It would cost an additional $126 million a year to bring expenditures here up to the national average, she said.

Teachers in Hawai'i earn between $29,000 and $59,000 each school year, compared to a salary range of between $40,000 to $90,000 in some Mainland school districts, Husted said.