Rejection of drug test draws threat from Lingle

Gov. Linda Lingle is threatening to pull the plug on a contract awarding public school teachers pay raises if the Department of Education fails to comply with a requirement to drug test instructors.

State negotiators added the drug program as a non-negotiable item in bargaining talks with the teachers union last year.

Her comments came a day after the Board of Education unanimously voted against funding the drug tests and blasted Lingle's administration for rejecting a request by education officials for more than $500,000 to cover some of its expenses.

State lawmakers are unsure whether there will be enough money to fund the plan.

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Gov. Linda Lingle threatened yesterday to repeal a contract awarding pay raises for thousands of public school teachers if the Department of Education fails to comply with a provision mandating random drug tests of instructors in the next school year.

Her comments came a day after the Board of Education unanimously voted against funding the drug tests and blasted Lingle's administration for rejecting a request by education officials for more than $500,000 to cover some of its expenses.

"We cannot effectuate this contract unless the conditions are carried out," Lingle said about the drug program, which the state added as a non-negotiable item in contract talks with the teachers union last year. "This was agreed to by both sides."

Lingle argues the Education Department, with a budget exceeding $2 billion, regularly has $30 million left over each year, some of which could easily cover drug tests of as many as 3,250 teachers, or one in four employees, as required by the contract. Employees with the United Public Workers union, she said, also agreed to be tested for drugs without receiving extra state money.

But school board Chairwoman Donna Ikeda said 90 percent of the unspent funds Lingle mentioned have been distributed to schools under a state law passed years ago that gives principals more financial autonomy.

"They can save for big items, like if they intend to buy computers in a couple of years," she said. "It's like a savings account."

In May, despite resistance from some teachers concerning drug tests, the 13,000-member Hawaii State Teachers Association ratified a nearly $120 million, two-year contract awarding them 4 percent raises in the current and next school years.

The deal will pay an entry-level teacher with a bachelor's degree $43,157, up from $39,901, and increase the top teacher salary to $79,170 from $73,197.

Lingle declined to say whether she would withhold money for the pay raises scheduled in the contract's final year if the drug tests fall through. She predicted teachers would pressure the school board "to make certain that this program is in place."

The contract says the teachers union and the school board "shall establish" the drug program by June 30 but does not state where the money is supposed to come from.

Roger Takabayashi, president of the teachers union, said education officials will have drug testing guidelines by the deadline.

"We will have procedures and protocol," he said. "But if you don't show up with the cup, what are we going to do?"

The Education Department's supplemental budget request for the 2008-09 fiscal year seeks $523,723 from the Legislature to hire five workers and buy computer equipment for the drug program. Expenses to conduct the tests, however, are expected to be at least double that amount, officials have acknowledged.

Two key Democratic state lawmakers declined to say whether there will be enough money to fund the plan, given pressing needs such as affordable housing, aging University of Hawaii facilities and public hospitals struggling to stay open.

Even if it secures funds, the drug program is likely to face another challenge. The American Civil Liberties Union has said it will sue the state in federal court if the program moves forward, claiming it would violate teachers' privacy under the Fourth Amendment.