The Hawaii State Teachers Association said it has devised a teacher drug-testing program that could begin now, but the Lingle administration said the union did not go far enough to uphold the negotiated contract.

Teachers union president Roger Takabayashi said HSTA has agreed to initiate drug testing — based on reasonable suspicion — that covers all of its 13,000 members and is willing to negotiate procedures for random drug testing.

"We have the document ready to go, ready for implementation and it's been turned down," Takabayashi said. He said the state Department of Education approved the procedures but that the Lingle administration won't accept them.

Jim Halvorson, a state deputy attorney general, said the administration wants procedures for both random and for-cause drug testing in place before testing begins, and that Takabayashi's claim to want to continue negotiations is double talk.

"They're trying to get out of the deal and they keep coming up with new arguments and new rationale of why they are not going to do this, and to me that's quintessential bad faith," Halvorson said.

Takabayashi accused the Lingle administration of taking the issue to the media by saying the HSTA reneged on the contract.

"We have not reneged on the deal," Takabayashi said. "That is completely false, totally untrue. Our contract said we will negotiate with the Board of Education and we have been doing that. We already completed the 'reasonable suspicion' document."

The HSTA ratified its contract with the state in April 2007. In the final hour of negotiations, the state added a drug testing requirement for all teachers but how that was to proceed was still to be negotiated and implemented by June 30.

HSTA is not opposed to random drug testing, Takabayashi said, but has concerns about such issues as privacy rights and illegal search and seizure.

"We have always been, from day one, open and ready to negotiate," he said.

Halvorson said he advised stopping the negotiations after HSTA sent a letter claiming it was no longer going to negotiate. He also said he wanted to wait until administrative appeals over the issue, such as one brought by HSTA before the Hawaii Relations Labor Board, are resolved.

HSTA questioned the legality of random testing, saying it was unaware that what it had agreed to might be unconstitutional. But a state attorney general's opinion said that because teachers have special status and are heavily regulated, they have a reduced expectation of privacy, Halvorson said.

"But our bigger argument is it was negotiated, therefore it's a constitutional waiver," he said.

Takabayashi said HSTA disagrees and asked for a federal mediator to join the negotiations, but that the administration rejected the idea. The union has also asked the Hawaii Relations Labor Board for a declaratory ruling to resolve the issue, Takabayashi said.

"We're not opposed to random drug testing but we just want to do it legally correct," he said. "We agree that teachers who abuse drugs should be removed. There's no question about that."