Stimulus, Budget and the governor

Just were reading some of the comments on the Star-Bulletin and Advertiser web site. It seems that a lot of poorly informed folks out there. So to help them:
Should the governor use education stimulus funds to balance the budget? NO!!!
Should the governor cut wages and benefits? NO!!!
Should the DOE close out the year on May 6th? YESSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!
Okay no, not really. As for using the stimulus funds like she wants? It may be illegal. And it sure would make our jobs harder. Cut wages and benefits is a shortsighted idea. It would affect spending in the state cutting tax revenues even more. She seems willing to sacrifice the state to prove a democratic policy wrong.
As for a shortened school year, I’ve heard from principals that money is running out. Kawamura said that the administration would float the money, but who would believe them.

Education Budget

The governor has announced using $192 million of the stimulus funds for education to balance the budget. It would seem on the surface that this is not legal. Not ethical. Not even would it pass the common sense test.
The money should be welcomed as a solution for addressing the budget deficit in education. But it seems that the governor is consistently punishing the education community for nonsupport during her campaigns. Teachers as well as the DOE administration are the targets.
Consistent under funding, constant criticism and violating teachers’ civil rights are the legacy of this governor. Greeting a private school team at the airport is commendable but not doing the same for the public school teams is wrong. I hope teachers now realize their error in supporting the governor. Every governor or candidate for governor has wanted to be the education governor. This is the education governor, the governor that has done all she can to damage the public education system.

Money,Money, Money

Today’s Star Bulletin says that EUTF is short $27 million. There is a $29 million shortfall and the state wants employees to pay. The problem with the EUTF is that it was under funded by the start. The EUTF had to increase benefits to compete with HSTA’s VEBA trust. While it had a mechanism to increase funding it was too small in just the first year and needed adjustment.
Only HMSA and Kaiser were large enough to bid on the contract. Smaller unions could not offer an alternative to their members. When Summerlin came into Hawaii the EUTF trustees voted to extend HMSA’s contract rather than allowing Summerlin to bid. I think that the legislature’s intent was not fully thought out. They were really negotiating from weakness. Are the state and the trustees guilty of malfeasance?
MBC had to declare bankruptcy. They say that there was a change in tax laws and reporting income. Because they were unaware of this now MBC has a shortage. I’m sorry but I cannot accept this simple explanation. There is a lot of blame to go around. Who is guilty of malfeasance? MBC’s director, MBC’s board, HSTA’s executive director, HSTA’s executive officers, HSTA’s board of directors, HSTA’s fiscal staff?

Recovery and Reinvestment Act

Went to the recovery.gov web site and got this information. In a news release dated 3/7/09 these are the amounts to be released within 30 - 45 days.


Title I Grants to Local education Agencies $33,174,368
Educational Technology Grants $3,209,375
IDEA Part B Grants to States $39,925,269
IDEA Part B Preschool Grants $1,061,069
IDEA Part C Grants for Infants and Children $2,139,843
Vocational Rehabilitation State Grants $2,249,150
Independent Living State Grants $242,193
Services for Older Individuals who are Blind $87,883
Federal Work Study $ 450,129
State Fiscal Stabilization Fund $192,178,168

Grand Total $274,718,167

Now what the governor and the legislature do? Who knows?

Merit Pay

Merit pay is in the news again. And once again people are jumping on the bandwagon. What are the parameters for awarding merit pay? If reading scores go up does that mean all teachers receive the award or only language art teachers? What about the administrators that may have set up training and found the funds? What about the registrar that had to work the master schedules? What about the other teachers in the school who sacrificed funding to allow the LA teachers to raise the scores? What about the grade level teachers that don’t test?
It takes a village to raise a child. But it also takes a whole school effort to raise test scores.

Leadership

As I was reading this morning's Star Bulletin a headline said "budget crisis tests leaders". Leadership being faced by crisis and how they respond is the true test of leadership. As the state and HSTA faces their crisis it is clear our leaders have failed the test.
The governor by not having a plan and the HSTA leadership for not fulfilling their fiduciary responsibility. The reasons for MBC to declare bankruptcy is clear. But the why remains unanswered. How did our leadership not know? Were they just too busy having fun in their own "private club"? In the past two years or so I have seen a change of culture at HSTA and it has not been for the better.

MBC

MBC declared bankruptcy today.
I cannot understand why this occurred. But HSTA's explanation does not fly. Information was not given to members. I can understand the need for confidentiality but lieing to us is not right. I'm getting sick of it.