And with an agreement reached among negotiators for the Board of Education, Department of Education and the teachers union, the ball is now in Gov. Linda Lingle's court after her swift and forceful rejection of the deal on Monday.

She now needs to move toward the middle ground between the administration's position and the compromise deal.

The accord has flaws. The pact calls for spending $35 million from the state's rainy-day fund as part of a plan to restore seven of the 10 remaining furlough days scheduled for the current school year, enabling students to regain that time in the classroom. Teachers also would substitute two planning days for furloughs.

The governor is correct that some of this money is being misspent - calling back to work many district and other non-classroom teachers who aren't essential to keeping schools open on furlough Fridays. It's unfortunate that the Hawaii State Teachers Association and the state couldn't have come to terms on criteria identifying which workers are needed to restore a reasonable level of classroom learning, in addition to assuring student health and safety. This is a budget crisis, and using such distinctions to set spending priorities should be part of any crisis solution.

Looking ahead to reducing furlough days in the 2010-11 school year, as Lingle wants to do, is important. But the more immediate concern is to chart a responsible course through what remains of the current academic year. Students are due to return to class Tuesday, so there's zero time to waste. The HSTA pact represents progress and should be treated as a useful step toward at least a short-term settlement.

The governor has asserted that $50 million plus a conversion of planning days could restore all furlough days through the 2010-11 school year, but that blueprint is looking less feasible. It assumes a $19 million operational deficit that the DOE would need to make up somehow.

The union can't, and shouldn't, accept on faith that this budgetary hole can be closed without further layoffs. The DOE already has made deep cuts during the budgetary process and with the further fiscal restrictions ordered by the governor, it's hard to imagine where that much extra savings can be found in the short term.

There also may be additional funding for public schools from the federal government, an estimated $90 million awaiting Senate approval. If this materializes, it could be part of a plan to offset the 2010-11 budgetary blow.

Meanwhile, there's an immediate problem to solve, and elected officials and union leaders are duty-bound to negotiate in earnest.

This game of "chicken" has gone on long enough.

Gov. Linda Lingle's aides are expected to meet with education officials this morning to discuss ending teacher furloughs, but the teachers union will not be at the table.

Lingle on Monday shot down an agreement the union had signed off on, which would have ended most furlough days this school year with the use of $35 million from the state's rainy-day fund. She called it "not a credible plan," and "not sustainable."

State Board of Education Chairman Garrett Toguchi will meet with Linda Smith, the governor's senior policy adviser, and Marie Laderta, the director of human resources development, at 10 a.m. in the governor's office.

Smith said yesterday that she was also arranging for either Superintendent Pat Hamamoto or Deputy Superintendent Kathryn Matayoshi to attend the meeting.

"We want to sit down and discuss where we go from here, and why the governor believes that this current plan is not a sustainable solution," Smith said.

But Toguchi said he hoped to gain the governor's support for the plan and to explain to her aides why the state Board of Education and the state Department of Education support the agreement. Toguchi said he plans to continue asking to meet directly with the governor.

While the governor does not need to sign off on the new plan, she would need to approve the Legislature's use of the $35 million from the state's rainy-day fund. Legislative leadership said their ability to push the plan through in the upcoming session would depend on the governor's support.

Under the agreement, $35 million from the rainy-day fund would eliminate five furlough days. Teachers would then give up two planning days - Jan. 4, the beginning of the second semester, and May 27, the last teacher workday of the school year. The school year for students would end three days early, on May 21, meaning the week of May 24 would be a furlough week for teachers.

For next school year, the state Board of Education has also agreed to rearrange the 17 furloughs in the school calendar to minimize disruptions to instruction days.

Toguchi said he expected the governor to express disapproval for the plan.

"I expected her to be critical of it, but at the same time, hopefully she can be convinced that while this is not her original proposal, it is as good a deal as we're going to get given the amount of time and money that we have," Toguchi said.

The governor has not wavered from her original plan, which she proposed on Nov. 15. Lingle proposed using $50 million from the rainy-day fund to restore teacher salaries for 12 days, and then require teachers to swap their planning days for instructional days to eliminate 15 additional furlough days. Lingle's negotiating team had been adamant that all remaining 27 furlough days in the teachers' two-year contract be eliminated.

Toguchi said the tentative agreement with the Hawaii State Teachers Association is a compromise. He said it took a significant amount of negotiating to get education officials and HSTA to see eye-to-eye.

"The problem was that they made a position and they won't change from it. I think that our students deserve better than a my-way-or-the-highway proposal," Toguchi said.

Lingle's representatives walked away from talks with the HSTA, DOE and BOE on Dec. 17 when the teachers union said $50 million was not enough to eliminate all furlough days.

Union and Department of Education officials said they were concerned that Lingle's plan, by their tally, was $19.3 million short.

Officials feared that eliminating furlough days, and the $19.3 million shortage, would result in layoffs of 2,500 full-time employees, an increase in class sizes and loss of programs. The teachers union had also expressed concern about giving up the roughly 10 yearly planning days.

State education officials and the teachers union have made an earnest effort to restore classroom days to public schools-but more needs to be done. A plan for eliminating or at least significantly reducing the number of Furlough Fridays without raising taxes is necessary to maintain an adequate school system during difficult economic times.

The Hawaii State Teachers Association agreed in September to a contract that calls for cutting 17 days from this current academic year and another 17 for the next school year. The move would result in Hawaii having the shortest school year in the nation and was denounced by U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan as "inconceivable."

After political leaders, school officials and union leaders began blaming each other, they returned to the bargaining table to correct their mistakes. Gov. Linda Lingle offered to use $50 million from the state's rainy day fund to restore teachers' pay for 12 days over two academic years while converting 15 planning days to classroom teaching.

Instead, the union and Board of Education agreed last week to a plan that would use $35 million from the rainy day fund to restore teachers' wages for five days, have them give up two planning days and end the current school year three days early.

Gov. Linda Lingle has rightly rejected the proposal, pointing out that it would use more than two-thirds of the available rainy day fund while restoring only five days of instruction. She said the proposal "is not a credible plan, it is not fiscally responsible and it is not sustainable."

In addition, she noted, it did not address the next school year, even as the state Council on Revenues has projected that its original estimates of revenue for the coming year were overly optimistic.

Robert Perkinson of Save Our Schools Hawaii said Lingle's original offer "was not as viable as it first appeared ... She wasn't putting enough money on the table to restore every furlough day."

The potential for agreement remains. Senate President Colleen Hanabusa praised the school board and union for their "great effort" while recognizing that ultimately legislators need to work with Lingle to reach a sound solution. If the Legislature approves expenditures for the effort, she noted, the governor's signature is needed to release the funds.

The time for adversity on the issues has passed and all sides seem to recognize now that they must work together to achieve the public goal. They should not allow frustration and hostility to undermine that effort.

State Board of Education Chairman Garrett Toguchi plans to meet today with members of Gov. Linda Lingle's staff to try and gain the administration's support for a plan to reduce furlough days for public school students.

Meanwhile, legislative leaders say a special session to deal with the furlough issues seems unlikely, given the timing and the governor's stance.

Lingle criticized the plan by the board, the Department of Education and the Hawaii State Teachers Association as not credible, fiscally irresponsible and unsustainable.

Toguchi is set to meet with Linda Smith, Lingle's senior policy adviser, and Marie Laderta, the state's chief negotiator, to try and persuade them otherwise.

"The board and I remain committed to bringing students back to the classroom for as many days as possible," Toguchi said in a statement. "Failure is not an option when something as important as the education of Hawaii's children is at stake."

In all, 17 classroom days were cut this year, with 17 more set for next school year while teachers and other state employees are on unpaid leave under new contracts that call for furloughs as a means to cut state expenses.

Seven furlough days already have passed.

The union-board agreement would use $35 million of the state's rainy day fund to restore teachers' pay for five days, provided they give up two planning days for instruction. The three finals days will be scheduled at the end of the school year.

Lawmakers said union and department leaders gave them assurances they would not seek additional money to make up the 17 days next year, but would work on adjusting the school schedule to accommodate furloughs.

Lingle has proposed using $50 million from the rainy day fund to restore teachers' pay for 12 days over two academic years ending June 2011. The rest would be restored by converting paid teacher planning days to classroom days.

Any use of the rainy day fund, valued at about $58 million, would require legislative approval.

If lawmakers held a five-day special session to pass a bill authorizing use of money from the fund, the measure would require Lingle's approval.

"At this point it doesn't look favorable for a special session," said House Speaker Calvin Say (D, St. Louis Heights-Wilhelmina Rise-Palolo Valley). "I don't think we'll resolve anything if we don't get the concurrence of the governor."

Democrats have the numbers to override any veto, but the governor still would able to restrict the appropriated funds, making them unavailable for use on anything else.

"If she doesn't release it, it sits where it is," said Senate President Colleen Hanabusa (D, Nanakuli-Makua). "We still can't guarantee to the parents and/or the Department (of Education) that the money will get to them.

"If it's done, they will all have to go and ask the governor to release the funds."

Both urged all sides to continue negotiations as lawmakers head into the 2010 regular session on Jan. 20.