The Value of Education Here

Just to forewarn everyone - I am on my soapbox. Just ask my neighbor when I went off this afternoon.
For those of you who don't know (which I'm sure most of you don't) Hawaii public schools has a huge budget deficit going for the schools. To help close the gap the DOE proposed what they call furlough days. Now the teachers voted on whether or not to implement them and they voted for them. Furlough days are days that the schools would be closed and teachers will not work nor get paid. There will be 17 furlough days in all. These furloughs will equal to a 7.9% pay cut for the teachers. Now I understand that it is a lose lose situation for all. The teachers could vote against it and take the chance of being laid off or they could vote for the furlough days and take the pay cut but still keep their job (for now). I wasn't happy about the decision but thought that with the economy, what can you do.
Well then today a calender got sent home (it was actually the calender listing what was for lunch) and me and my friend really realized how much school is actually not happening. She was marking the days on her calender and we were just shocked. Next week the schools have a week off for fall break, then they have the 12th off for Columbus day and they have the 13th off for a teachers work day I think. The furlough days then start on Oct 23 with that Friday off and then the following Friday off. Out of the 22 possible days that they can go to school in October, they have 9 of those days off. That means they are only going to school in October for 13 days.....13 DAYS!?!?!?!?! They don't even go to school in October for a complete week. Does anybody not see a problem with this? Then I think they have the first Friday off in November and another one sometime later in the month. We then realize that school is out on every single Friday in December (including the furlough days and then Christmas break, which I might add goes from Dec 21-Jan 6). I don't see how people think that this is okay!
Then I am looking at her paper from this past Sunday and there was an article about it and it just set me off. (I will warn you that I am already having a bad week so this didn't help.) Click here if you want to read the whole article. The article was titled "Friday furloughs best, says union"It goes on to say that it wasn't feasible to take the furlough days on days the students already had off. The chairman of the state Board of Education said that "taking away the six noninstructional days from teachers would mean less time to plan curriculum and create strategies for boosting achievement." What does it matter - they have just taken 17 days away from the students! He also goes on to say, "We demand a lot from our educators and put a lot of pressure on them to raise student achievement, raise test scores. ... Our educators need that time to get training, do planning, and identify the needs of their students." I don't think canceling school is going to help teachers achieve this. It was reported that in order to save the state any money, the furlough days had to be on a school day. That is a bunch of crap!!
I agree with one of the state Representatives when he said that he would support a slight increase in the general excise tax if that extra money went to the schools. I think a lot of parents would agree. I know I would! The other thing that gets me is some parents complaining about what are they supposed to do with their kids on these days. I can see why that is a concern but don't you think that you should be more worried about the lack of education that your child is getting. I know that there is something else that can be cut instead of cutting out school days. Or if it must be done take away the teachers work days, take away fall break. What is fall break anyways?!?!? I never had it when I was in school. End the school year early. I know there are other ways.
I actually just looked at the revised calender for the rest of the year and they next full week of school (after this week) is not until the last week of February. And there are actually only 3 full weeks of school left in the school year and we are only in October. Seriously!?!?!
To top everything off there was another article in another section of the newspaper that talked about how an engineer for the Department of Transportation commutes to another island every day. Evidently there is a shortage of construction engineers on Kaua'i so they fly this guy over everyday. Now I know there is more than one engineer for the DOT. Don't you think it would make sense to transfer one there. It is okay to fly a guy over to another island everyday but because there is a money shortage in the DOE that we have to cancel school. As one parent at the school said that in 20 years when all the decision makers are in nursing homes, they won't be properly taken care off because the doctors and nurses who are in charge of them got school canceled because there wasn't enough money.
I have all the respect in the world for teachers. I know I could never do it. I know this whole situation was a lose-lose situation. I just think that it is sad that it had to come down to this. Hopefully Hawaii can get their act together and reinstate these 17 school days.
Okay I'm off my soapbox! :)