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BOE OKs bill’s
union exemption

The board votes to support the
intent of a legislative bill to
implement an educational
accountability system

LeMahieu says collective bargaining
exemption would be legal

By Crystal Kua
and Harold Morse
Star-Bulletin

By an 11-0 vote, the Board of Education late last night backed the intent of a legislative bill to implement an educational accountability system and exclude it from collective bargaining.

The vote was a departure from an earlier position the board took on Dec. 16 on the collective bargaining issue. But the board did not wholeheartedly support the measure, which is supported by Gov. Ben Cayetano and is moving through the House.

"We're sending the message ... that we strongly support the intent of the bill, but the board was still not comfortable with some of the details," board vice chair Karen Knudsen said this morning.

At the December meeting, the board said it backed state superintendent Paul LeMahieu's push for accountability, but it didn't want to jeopardize its working relationship with public sector unions.

At that time, the BOE voted unanimously to delete language in proposed legislation that would have exempted an accountability system from the state collective bargaining law.

While HSTA president Karen Ginoza testified in support of accountability and standards-based education before the BOE last night, she said elimination of collective bargaining to bring about change was disappointing.

Leiomalama Desha, field service officer for the Hawaii Government Employees Association, testified that the HGEA supports "the concept of accountability," but also "we maintain our position that it would be subject to Chapter 89 (collective bargaining statute)."

Knudsen acknowledged, "This is a very difficult issue for people wanting to achieve something but wanting to honor the collective bargaining process."

The first vote on House Bill 1875 was 6-4-1, falling short of the majority the 13-member board needed to support the measure. Two board members were absent from the meeting while one member initially abstained.

But, the board didn't want to send BOE chairman Mitsugi Nakashima and LeMahieu to the Legislature without taking a stand, Knudsen said. Another vote was then taken, resulting in a unanimous stand to support the "intent" of the bill. "Intent, perhaps, is not strong but it does give them something (to take to Legislature)," Knudsen said.

The bill to implement an "educational accountability system," now before lawmakers, would establish a system characterized by rewards, assistance and sanctions.

Last night, LeMahieu told the board he had no real disagreement with the Hawaii State Teachers Association on accountability.

"What you have heard from the professional association I would like to echo," he said. "We have had conversations, a number of them, and I detected absolutely no opposition to accountability."

He believes educational accountability can be secured entirely separate from collective bargaining. Once a master agreement is arrived at in bargaining, the agreement can govern the creation of collaborative accountability, LeMahieu said.

Earlier this week, Knudsen told the House Education Committee that the December vote to delete the collective bargaining language came at a critical stage in contract negotiations with the HSTA. Board members did not wish to jeopardize negotiations by appearing to take a "back door" approach to modify contract negotiations.

Knudsen said she personally believes that details of an accountability plan should be exempt from collective bargaining, but she also believes that accountability should not be detailed in state law.

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LeMahieu: Accountability
can be bargaining-exempt

By Crystal Kua
Star-Bulletin

A recent court ruling gives the state Legislature the authority to exempt an accountability plan for public schools from collective bargaining, state Schools Superintendent Paul LeMahieu argued.

Circuit Judge Virginia Crandall ruled last month that a two-year public employee pay freeze passed by the 1999 Legislature is unconstitutional.

The ruling came in a lawsuit brought by four unions which sought to prevent the state and counties from implementing the freeze. Crandall's preliminary order said in part: "A legislative prohibition against the employer and employee discussing all cost items including wages is an unconstitutional infringement on the right to organize for the purpose of collective bargaining."

In a meeting with Star-Bulletin editors and reporters yesterday, LeMahieu said that led him to believe the ruling focused on pay.

"It said wages. And, in the very next sentence, it goes on to list a whole bunch of things that it recognizes as legislative authority to constrain collective bargaining," he said.

"It includes there health benefits, it includes who gets to be in bargaining units and not, it includes many other areas and enumerates some by way of example that it recognizes the legislative authority to constrain collective bargaining."

Accountability, he argued, should also be on that list.

"It's generally everybody's agreement that when it comes to accountability systems, that court would find no problem saying there is no fundamental right (for unions) as there is to the matter of wages," LeMahieu said.

An attorney for the unions could not be reached for comment, but the Hawaii Government Employees Association and the Hawaii State Teachers Association believe that details of an accountability plan must be brought to the bargaining table.

But whether that exemption will make it through the current session has yet to be seen.

Gov. Ben Cayetano supports the idea and the House majority package includes a bill with the exemption in it. The bill was approved by the House Education Committee this past week.

LeMahieu said that being down at the state Capitol has left him with a sense that something will happen this session.

"I think we have a Legislature that's laboring under just the right combination of feeling that it's been served notice and abject fear to make it actually consider doing some things very differently than in the past," he said.