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Committee clears
education accountability,
authority billsLegislators work anew
By Crystal Kua
on minimum wage bill
Star-BulletinState schools Superintendent Paul LeMahieu saw two major pieces of his educational reform agenda for this legislative session get passed by a conference committee yesterday.
His so-called accountability and authority bills are headed for a vote by the state House and Senate.
"It's a clear signal that the Legislature understands the agenda, they appreciate the agenda, they know and understand why it is that all of these many parts are important," he said.
The authority bill would establish an interagency working group that would identify and recommend temporary suspension of a list of rules, policies, procedures and practices that are preventing the public school system from managing its own affairs.
The accountability bill sets up the framework for a system of rewards, assistance and sanctions to hold schools accountable for student achievement of the Hawaii Content and Performance Standards. Such a system would take about five years to put into place.
The most controversial section of the bill originally sought to exempt the details of an accountability plan from collective bargaining, which public employee unions opposed.
The final version approved yesterday doesn't exactly say there will be an outright exemption from accountability but it does set up a two-tier system for arriving at a plan.
Under the bill, the superintendent would have the power to develop the details -- which LeMahieu calls the "whats" or "the givens" -- of an accountability system along with representatives of groups who have a stake in the public education system. Those include parents, community members and the unions.
The second tier would relegate to collective bargaining accountability issues that would have an impact on personnel.
If the stakeholders group decides that reassignment of faculty would be an option, "it's a given, it's going to happen and the only question now is how do you treat people fairly if it does and that's perfectly legitimate to involve the unions and talk about in negotiations," LeMahieu said.
Both LeMahieu and Hawaii State Teachers Association President Karen Ginoza, who helped lawmakers draft the measure, said they didn't compromise their positions.
"We've protected the members' rights when (accountability) will impact them and so that was what was very important to us," Ginoza said. "On the other hand, we feel accountability is important so we have always maintained that and I believe we can develop it together."
LeMahieu said the measure addresses all his concerns about collective bargaining.
"If you are clear about what it is you are really trying to accomplish, then there are many ways of accomplishing it," he said. "For some, this has been a win-lose situation -- collective bargaining, yes, collective bargaining, no. It was never that way for me."
House and Senate conferees said this was a major step forward in educational reforms.
"I think the measure before us provides clarity. It empowers the superintendent, it does protect the individual rights of the workers," Sen. David Ige said.
Legislators work anew
Star-Bulletin
on minimum wage billHouse and Senate negotiators were to revisit the issue of raising the minimum wage for isle workers today. Both the House and Senate bills want to raise the minimum wage from $5.25 to $5.75 cents.
But the Senate bill's raise would take effect Jan. 1, 2001, while the House bill's increase wouldn't apply until Jan. 1, 2003.
The Senate wanted to tie the Hawaii minimum wage to the federal minimum wage to ensure that all isle workers get an raise if Congress approves a minimum wage increase. A bill before Congress proposes to raise the minimum wage $1 an hour, to $6.15 an hour.
The two sides also differed yesterday on what percentage of Hawaii workers would be covered under the federal minimum wage law, since businesses with annual revenues below $500,000 would be exempt from paying the federal increase.
Some senators say up to 40 percent of the state's workers who earn the minimum wage wouldn't get the increase without legislation tying the state wage to the federal wage.
The House wants to keep the state wage separate.
The Senate appears willing to agree to the House bill's increase in the tip credit from 20 cents to 22 cents, but Rep. Bob Herkes pledged to kill the measure unless the Senate agrees to legislation to help businesses.
He said the Senate is sitting on a number of business-friendly bills, including one to exempt the Hawaii Tourism Authority from preparing environmental impact statements for its marketing plans.
You can track bills, hearings and other Legislature action via: Get involved
The Legislative Reference Bureau's public access room, state Capitol, room 401. Open 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday to Friday, and 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. Phone: 587-0478; fax, 587-0793; TTY, 538-9670.
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Big Island, 974-4000; Maui,
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