That the dispute about a bonus clause in public school teachers contract even came about is infuriating enough, but now the state and the Hawaii State Teachers Association are quarreling about how to go about resolving the conflict itself. State, HSTA argue
degrees of separationThe issue: The union and the state agree
to implement the teachers' contract without
a disputed bonus provision, but now
disagree on how separate it should be.Stop this madness. Nothing can be gained from this except to cause further distraction among teachers as they return to the classrooms to start a new school year and students and their parents already shortchanged by the three-week strike last April.
The union and the state are blaming each other for the careless manner in which the contract was finalized. They can both lay claim to that. Even though the final days of bargaining may have been physically and mentally taxing, the state and union negotiators knew that the final contract document deserved to be carefully reviewed before being sent to teachers for ratification.
HSTA's Joan Husted and the state's Davis Yogi should face reprimands or some penalties, or even resign because of the fiasco.
The union contends that the contract its members approved April 24 provides that teachers with master's degrees or professional diplomas receive a 3 percent bonus for two years. The state says the bonus was intended for just one year and that the contract's language was incorrect.
Both sides say they will set aside the bonus portion of the contract and allow other sections, including pay raises, to take effect. However, the state wants the bonus issue severed completely while the union wants it to remain in the contract while it is settled.
Meanwhile, resolution of the dispute appears distant as the union threatens court action or another strike and the state pleads its case based on financial hardship. If they cannot sort this out themselves, it may be time for a third party, such as a mediator, to step in, an idea Governor Cayetano is open to. A mediator could look objectively at how the contract dispute came about and bring together a compromise, such as the state and union splitting the difference on the cost of the bonuses, which would amount to about $9 million for one year and $20 million for two.
Husted says HSTA will consider any proposals from the state, but have yet to see one and that's "making teachers angry." The state says if it has to pay for two bonuses, the money will come by cutting education services to students.
It they haven't already, taxpayers will soon lose their patience with this mess. Enough with the rhetoric, enough with the blame game, enough with the madness.
FOR reasons that seem lame, the Bush administration has halted a modest but successful program begun less than two years ago intended to reduce the number of guns in society by buying them from the owners. Administration officials raised concerns about funding and doubts about how whether it decreased the supply of guns to criminals. Bush errs in quitting
gun buyback programThe issue: President Bush has
ended a gun buyback program
initiated by his predecessor.The Honolulu police and fire departments, which have benefitted from the program, should continue to buy back guns even without federal involvement. That may require moderate funding from the Legislature next year.
Andrew Cuomo, the secretary of housing and urban development in the Clinton administration, launched the $15 million program in 1999. Using funds intended for reducing drug crimes, HUD gave police departments grants to buy guns in and around public housing projects, but the sales could be expanded, as they were in Honolulu to include the entire community.
During its first year, the program resulted in 20,000 guns being turned in to police nationwide in exchange for around $50 each. Last September, Honolulu police and fire officials received 308 handguns, rifles and shotguns from gun owners in exchange for $50 Foodland certificates. The guns were shredded at a metal recycling company. Fortunately, Honolulu police had conducted gun buyback events on three previous occasions so should be in a position to continue the program without federal assistance.
"Guns create tragedies every day in America," Cuomo said last year, "but our successful buybacks, which have greatly exceeded our expectations, have taken away thousands of opportunities for those tragedies."
Opponents of the program asked for evidence that it had removed criminals' guns from the streets or lowered the death rate from firearms. President Bush's HUD officials said the buybacks had removed only 1 to 2 percent of guns from the streets. Of course, it is impossible to prove that an accident has been averted or a life has been saved because a gun was turned in.
Attorney General John Ashcroft has assured the National Rifle Association, the most prominent gun lobby, that he believes that the Second Amendment gives individuals the right to bear firearms. That puts him at odds with most legal scholarship and the U.S. Supreme Court's last word on the subject -- and it also puts his face on the cover of the current issue of the NRA magazine.
Published by Oahu Publications Inc., a subsidiary of Black Press.Don Kendall, President
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