HGEA urges
special session

The union wants the state
to fund bonuses for teachers
with advanced degrees

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By Treena Shapiro
tshapiro@starbulletin.com

The Hawaii Government Employees Association has called on state lawmakers to convene a special session to fund about $11 million in bonuses for 6,675 public school teachers with advanced degrees.

The state Department of Education has said it cannot afford to pay the second year of the bonuses, an issue that has kept the state and teachers union at odds since settlement of a three-week teachers strike in April 2001.

The department said federal impact aid had been earmarked to fund the bonuses, but that now will be redirected to cover part of a $32 million budget shortfall.

While the Hawaii State Teachers Association considers its legal options, Russell Okata, HGEA executive director, said, "It's the responsibility of the state to find the money to pay the bonuses that the teachers rightfully expect."

He suggested that the money could come from savings or the Hawaii Hurricane Relief Fund -- financed by 0.1 percent of new mortgages. The fund was started when insurance firms refused to insure local property against hurricane damage after Hurricane Iniki in 1992.

House Speaker Calvin Say (D, Palolo Valley-Kaimuki) said he doubted his members would want to call a special session because they were busy with political campaigns, but did not reject the idea because he had not yet seen the HGEA request.

House Minority Leader Galen Fox (R, Waikiki-Ala Wai) said he thought the funds might be available without calling a special session, "but if a special session is necessary, I would support it. I think many other Republicans would, too.

"We would support making the teachers whole," he said.

The bonuses played a key role in settling the three-week strike by 13,000 public school teachers. But the payments were delayed when the state and the HSTA disagreed over whether the bonuses applied to one or both years of the new contract.

In February the Hawaii Labor Relations Board ruled that the bonuses applied only to the first year and that the state and the union would have to negotiate bonuses for the second year.