Teachers may bolt over pay
By Johnny Brannon
Advertiser Education Writer
Hawai'i's 13,000 public-school teachers are seeking annual raises worth $90 million, and their union warned yesterday that many plan to leave their jobs soon unless salaries are increased substantially.
In a move meant to bolster its bargaining position, the Hawai'i State Teachers Association said a survey of its members found that half do not plan to be teaching here within five years.
Takabayashi
Thirty-eight percent of the teachers who said they intend to take other jobs here or on the Mainland indicated that a need for higher pay was the primary reason, according to the union.
"The state has to offer a competitive salary to attract highly qualified teachers to Hawai'i, and to retain the good ones that we already have," said HSTA president Roger Takabayashi.
Hawai'i has long grappled with a teacher shortage, and schools superintendent Pat Hamamoto said the union's projections are being taken seriously.
"I think the survey validates a lot of the trends we've been noticing and working on," Hamamoto said. "I think it raises the level of urgency much more. It concerns us quite a bit."
HSTA revealed for the first time yesterday that it is seeking raises of 15 percent for each year of a two-year contract. The state has offered raises of 1 percent per year, and sluggish talks are continuing under the guidance of a federal mediator.
The raises sought by HSTA would increase starting teachers' annual pay from $36,486 to $45,000, and make $60,000 the average salary, Takabayashi said. The union hopes to increase top-scale pay from $66,203 to $100,000 by 2009.
Chief state labor negotiator Ken Taira said it is not surprising that the state and union bargaining positions are so far apart, since the proposals are the first to be made by each side.
"That's the way you always start negotiations," he said.
The talks remain cordial and productive, despite their slow pace, he said.
"Hopefully we can make strides in terms of getting a wage settlement," Taira said.
HSTA did not release specific details of how its proposal is structured, but said the 15 percent raises would cost about $90 million per year. Taira said the 1 percent offered by the state would cost about $6 million per year.
The state typically hires more than 1,500 new teachers per year, but there were roughly 275 empty teaching positions midway through the current school year, the union said.
Hamamoto, who is not directly involved in the contract talks, said the Department of Education has long suspected that a more serious teacher shortage was imminent.
She said details of the survey could be helpful in formulating plans to ensure that its predictions don't come true.
The anonymous telephone survey was conducted in January, and involved more than 600 teachers from the state's four counties, Takabayashi said.
The survey's margin of error was plus or minus 4 percentage points, meaning a survey of all teachers would not likely produce a result more than 4 percentage points above or below the survey's findings, according to QMark Research and Polling.
HSTA executive director Joan Husted said the survey is meant to educate the public, and that additional details will be released soon.
"We can't seem to get people to understand how serious this teacher shortage is," she said. "In five years, we could lose 6,000 teachers."
Hawai'i's cost of living, and the increasing cost of housing, are prime reasons teachers leave, Husted said.
"If we don't teach the youngsters and use qualified teachers, this economy will never survive," she said. "We can't be competitive if our youngsters can't come out competitive."
Hawai'i's teachers went on strike for three weeks in April 2001 before ratifying a contract that included raises totaling 18.5 percent over two years.
There have been no serious indications that another strike is likely. Both sides say they hope to reach an agreement before late April so that lawmakers can provide for any pay raises in the state budget being formulated during the current legislative session.
"If we don't make it by the deadline, any pay increase will be carried over to the next year and be retroactive," said Taira, the state negotiator.
Reach Johnny Brannon at jbrannon@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8084.
