A top federal education official told parents yesterday to keep the pressure on for a solution to teacher furloughs, but also said the crisis could be used as an opportunity to improve quality at some of the state's poorly performing public schools.

"Don't ever waste a good crisis," Peter Cunningham, assistant secretary for communications and outreach at the U.S. Department of Education, said in an afternoon talk with parents in a Hawai'i Medical Service Association conference room.

Cunningham said the Obama administration is reluctant to tell Hawai'i or any state how to resolve local education issues. But he said teacher furloughs are the wrong approach and reflect poorly on the state.

Cunningham, who has met with Gov. Linda Lingle and state education officials, said he believes there is a solution.

"I'm pretty convinced that if all the adults get in the room, they'll figure it out," he told parents.

The Lingle administration and the Hawai'i State Teachers Association are not scheduled to meet privately again to discuss teacher furloughs until Dec. 15, and there are doubts about whether a deal to reduce furloughs can be reached before the next regular session of the state Legislature begins in January.

If no agreement is reached before the session, teacher furloughs could be folded into the debate on the state's projected $1 billion budget deficit through June 2011.

The two-year contract between the state and the teachers' union contains 34 furlough days for most teachers to help the state reduce labor costs. After an outcry from parents, and criticism from the U.S. Department of Education, Lingle proposed eliminating 27 teacher furlough days by taking $50 million from the state's rainy-day fund and asking teachers to swap planning days for furlough days.

The teachers' union has resisted giving up planning days, and the negotiations appear at a standstill.

Cunningham, a top deputy to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, has visited Hawai'i and Guam to tour schools and hear feedback on education as the Obama administration prepares to suggest revisions to the federal No Child Left Behind law, which is up for reauthorization by Congress soon.

LAW CRITICIZED

Parents and students at Cunningham's HMSA appearance had questions on how to develop more charter schools, the high cost of special education, how to promote more advanced math and science curriculum, and how to encourage greater parental involvement.

Parents also questioned the effectiveness of No Child Left Behind, which penalizes schools, even schools that are improving, if students from all demographic groups fail to make adequate yearly progress toward proficiency.

Cunningham said the Obama administration may move away from No Child Left Behind's focus on proficiency to a growth model that measures whether public schools and students are making progress toward higher academic standards.

He said such a transition may take three to five years, because states will need time to create models to adequately measure growth.

But Cunningham was also drawn into the teacher furlough debate.

Melanie Bailey, a parent of an 'Aikahi Elementary School student, said she is saving money for private school in part because of her frustration about teacher furloughs. She urged parents to get involved.

"The parents are the key, and we just need to know how to unlock the door," she said.

'BE GROWNUPS'

Liz Kinsler, a parent of an Enchanted Lake Elementary School student, said the state's policy makers have allowed the teacher furlough debate to drag on long enough.

"We need them to stand up and be grownups," she said.

Cunningham said he took the "don't ever waste a good crisis" line from Rahm Emanuel, President Obama's chief of staff, who made it popular shortly after Obama was elected and had to deal with the economic downturn.

Cunningham said parents should use the crisis over teacher furloughs to call for improvements to public schools.

Asked whether he was happy with what he has seen in Hawai'i during his visit and whether the state may qualify for competitive federal Race to the Top grants, he said: "The answer is I'm not happy. Nobody should be happy."

Skip Hill, a parent of a student at Kaiser High School, said he found Cunningham's talk valuable. He said he doubts Lingle would have proposed her plan to reduce teacher furloughs without the criticism from Duncan and the U.S. Department of Education.

"It's worth it from the standpoint that it gives parents a chance to express their feelings with someone at the federal level," he said.