On this point, there is general agreement: There should be a way to ease the pain of furloughs on Hawaii public school students.

And in recent days, momentum has been building within the state Capitol for action to mitigate lost instructional days.
That’s a reasonable instinct, because there may be limited reserve funds available to ease the Department of Education budget shortfall, and lawmakers should look at this option.
However, the word “limited” should be firmly underscored. State resources that could be tapped are strictly constrained. And seeking a tax increase to fatten the coffers for a short-term solution would burden consumers and business, a regrettable move that would hinder, not help, the state economy.
The Hurricane Relief Fund is one source of money mentioned by some, including state Sen. Gary Hooser and state Rep. Roy Takumi. The fund was created as a safety net after private insurers left the market in the wake of Hurricane Iniki devastation. Lawmakers suggest that some of the fund’s balance could be tapped for short-term relief.
This is worth exploring. It could yield extra money for the DOE and reduce the number of furlough days, now set at 17.
However, they must proceed with caution. Although the private insurance market has since stabilized and can handle an imminent threat, this fund must remain solvent as protection for the future. Also, some legislators are concerned that cutting too deeply into this and other reserve funds could undermine the good credit rating the state enjoys, making the financing of state projects costlier.
And lawmakers should not call a special session to accomplish this. Any reconfiguration of the teachers’ furlough agreement will require a reopening of the contract and can’t be accomplished immediately. It would be more prudent to wait until the regular session of the Legislature in January, when a more comprehensive review of the DOE budget could take place.
The instructional calendar can and should be partially restored through reassigning some time now set aside for planning and holidays to teaching days. Some budgetary reserve dollars may buy back additional classroom time. Otherwise, Hawaii could end up with the nation’s shortest school year, which, for a state lagging in achieving federal education benchmarks, should be intolerable.
But the quest for a long-term solution to usher Hawaii schools through the recession won’t be advanced through a shortsighted strategy like a tax hike. That is sure to cause more problems than it solves.