Late Monday night, Superintendent Christina Kishimoto emailed Hawaii State Department of Education employees her implementation plan for Gov. David Ige’s illegal furloughs. The HIDOE has not transmitted any notification to the Hawaii State Teachers Association about this plan.
The HSTA has not agreed to furloughs, and any implementation would violate our collective bargaining agreement. We are consulting with our attorneys and plan to take any legal action in the near future to challenge the HIDOE’s furlough plan.
We know questions, concerns, and misconceptions about furloughs abound, so on Monday, Dec. 21, at 4 p.m., HSTA leadership will live stream a Q&A session on our Facebook page and YouTube channel to brief you on the latest developments. You can ask your question live during the session or submit it directly to us here.
In the meantime, we urge you to submit testimony to the Board of Education as soon as possible to:
- Protect public education funding by asking for the board’s support in our fight to prevent furloughs, and
- Explain how furloughs would impact your family, school, and students.
The BOE is scheduled to meet virtually this Thursday, Dec. 17, at 1:30 p.m.
Email your written testimony to testimony.BOE@boe.hawaii.gov by 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 16, and be sure to include the word “Testimony” in the subject line and at the top of the email. If you are willing and available to testify live during Thursday’s meeting, please contact us here and we will be in touch with you to coordinate our public messages.
Please note, all testimony submitted to the BOE becomes public record and is posted on the board’s website.
HSTA will live stream the public portion of the BOE meeting on our Facebook page and YouTube channel. These streams will be archived and available to view at your convenience.
Gov. David Ige claims he has no choice but to implement furloughs. This is not true. Just yesterday, Senate President Ron Kouchi said he doesn’t believe furloughs will happen, and he and fellow legislative leaders are trying to find other solutions to the state’s budget crisis.
We must push the governor, and our state and federal legislators, to find alternative ways to secure funding and balance the state’s budget. View HSTA President Corey Rosenlee’s full testimony to the board here.
Mahalo for all that you do for Hawaii's keiki.