The state House and Senate may have to amend the law to use the "rainy day" fund to reduce teacher furloughs because money from the fund cannot cover wages for state workers.

The law says the rainy day fund can be used to maintain programs essential to public health, safety, welfare and education, but the law specifically prohibits using the money to pay for cost items in any collective bargaining contract.

Linda Smith, Gov. Linda Lingle's senior policy adviser, said the Lingle administration does not consider the prohibition an obstacle to using $50 million from the rainy day fund to help reduce teacher furlough days. The governor proposed on Sunday using a combination of the rainy day fund and converting teacher planning days to classroom time to eliminate teacher furloughs starting in January.

Smith said lawmakers could either amend the law or the state Department of Education could use the rainy day fund money for education programs and free up other state money to reduce furlough days.

"We did not see it as an insurmountable hurdle," Smith said.

In a step closer to a special session on teacher furloughs, state House Speaker Calvin Say, D-20th (St. Louis Heights, Pälolo Valley, Wilhelmina Rise), said yesterday he would strongly recommend a special session if the state Department of Education, the state Board of Education and the Hawaii State Teachers Association agree soon on Lingle's proposal.

Say, who had opposed a special session and the use of special funds to reduce teacher furloughs, emphasized that such an agreement was a pre-condition to his support.

"I think this is a worthwhile purpose in regards to restoring classroom instructional days," the speaker said in explaining why his position has changed.

State Senate President Colleen Hanabusa, D-21st (Nänäkuli, Mäkaha), said staffers were dissecting how to fit Lingle's proposal into a possible bill. She said lawmakers would likely have to amend the law to deal with the prohibition on using the rainy day fund for collective bargaining rather than risk a legal challenge.

Hanabusa said the Senate would likely support a special session if the state and teachers' union were moving toward an agreement. "I think the Senate is probably closer to coming back than the House is," she said.

Lingle's proposal to cancel 27 of the 34 teacher furlough days in the HSTA's two-year contract was widely greeted yesterday as progress. But several lawmakers are unsettled about tapping the rainy day fund and about the precedent such a move may set given the budget cuts necessary to close a $1 billion deficit through June 2011.

Others, including the HSTA and the Hawai'i Government Employees Association, also are reluctant to comment until receiving a formal proposal from the state.

UNCLEAR ON DETAILS

State schools superintendent Pat Hamamoto said she was still unclear on the details of the governor's plan. "Until we work through the details, I can't really say," she said. "The devil is in the details. I want to go through it — the consequences and the steps — with the HSTA."

But Hamamoto praised Lingle's effort, saying it demonstrates that "education is a priority in Hawai'i." She said she plans to have discussions with the HSTA leadership soon.

"We have to acknowledge that coming up with something of this magnitude, finding the dollars for education, is a huge step in the right direction," Hamamoto said.

Eric Seitz, one of the attorneys who has filed a federal lawsuit to block teacher furloughs, said he would be willing to dismiss his suit to help with an agreement. "To that end, we will not initiate any appeals or file any further motions or pleadings at this time to enable the parties to meet and come to an agreement that hopefully will render any further litigation unnecessary," he said in a statement.

Lingle's plan would require the state and the HSTA to reopen the teachers' contract and negotiate the 15 nonclassroom days that would be used to replace furlough Fridays. Money from the rainy day fund would cover an additional 12 days, for 27 furlough days in all.

It remains unclear how school administrators and other support staff represented by the HGEA and the United Public Workers are included in this plan. HGEA represents school principals, educational assistants, school health aides and other office personnel, while UPW represents school custodians and cafeteria workers.

Michael Harano, principal of Washington Middle School, said support workers must be included in any plan to reopen schools on furlough days.

"If the health aide isn't there, what happens if a kid gets hurt? It raises a lot of questions," Harano said, adding that he supported the plan overall. "Obviously, I am in favor of having the schools' days back. I certainly think it's a good thing. Better late than never."

TEACHERS PLEASED

Bebi Davis, a chemistry and physics teacher at Farrington High school, said furloughs have increased the amount of time she spends outside of class helping her students with school work.

"You're crunching things into a shorter time period," Davis said, adding that she allows her students to call her in the evenings and on weekends if they need help. "My phone rings a lot more often than it used to."

Davis, who was the 2009 Teacher of the Year, said the governor's plan represents "shared sacrifice" since teachers would be asked to give up the time they spend planning lessons and taking professional development workshops, which are necessary to maintain a teacher's license and federal "highly qualified" status.

"Whatever it takes, society needs to get our students back into schools. Everyone is accountable for that — every single person," she said.

Lisa Tsuruda, an English teacher at Mililani High School and 2009 Milken Award winner, said she's concerned that the plan requires teachers to give up their planning time.

"All of these meetings result in a better environment for our students, which translates into our teachers and our students working more effectively toward achievement," she said.

However, she said, restoring classroom time will mean higher achievement for her students. "We love our students and can't wait to have back our time with them," she said.

PATCH FOR DEFICIT

Last session, Lingle proposed taking money from the rainy day fund to patch a deficit for the fiscal year that ended in June, but lawmakers rejected her request, in part to preserve the fund in the event the budget deficit grew larger.

The emergency and budget reserve fund — commonly known as the rainy day fund — is based on revenues from the state's share of a settlement with tobacco companies for the health-related costs of smoking.

The law creating the fund allows the Legislature to use the money on public health, safety, welfare and education; to provide stimulus programs during an economic downturn; and to respond to disasters and other emergencies.

Lawmakers took $8 million from the fund last session for adult mental health services and $14 million for public hospitals at the Hawai'i Health Systems Corp. But lawmakers declined requests from social-service providers to use the fund to help shield the poor from budget cuts.

In 2007, lawmakers used $24 million from the fund to help respond to a Big Island earthquake in October 2006.

Lingle's proposal would basically empty most of the $60 million left in the fund.

State House Minority Leader Lynn Finnegan, R-32nd (Lower Pearlridge, 'Aiea, Hälawa), said she would have preferred that the governor ask the Department of Education to make more efficient use of the state money now spent on education instead of providing new money to end teacher furloughs.

"I don't necessarily like the idea," Finnegan said of tapping the rainy day fund.