With the economy struggling both on a state and national level, the state of Hawaii decided to cut cost on government workers in the form of furlough Fridays. This cut the employees work days on certain Fridays of the year. While the policy was pretty straight forward, there was much debate about the education system.
Entering the 2009-2010 school year Hawaii was one of the lowest scoring states on national tests. Even prior to furlough Fridays the average school week for Hawaii students was 29 hours where most other schools throughout the nation go 35 hours a week. During the furlough Friday weeks the school week is only 23 hours. This cut in schooling time to an already limited amount time surely can not help Hawaii’s educational ranking versus other schools in the nation. It will be interesting to see how Hawaii matches up against other schools in the year end testing.
With the government looking forward to the 2010-2011 school year they have requested that teachers work for free for the few remaining furlough Fridays and in that case the government will be willing to pull funds from the Hurricane Relief Fund to cover the cost for the following schools years to eliminate furlough Fridays. Although it is a positive thought, many teachers have already made themselves available on weekends to make field trips happen that would not be done on Fridays. It is not reasonable for anyone to work “for free”. It is highly unlikely that anyone in the higher levels of government is taking a pay cut and still fully doing their job.
Not only is this posing a problem for people living in Hawaii, but also people moving to Hawaii. Many people move to Waikoloa Beach Resort rather than Hualalai Resort due to the private schools being more accessible. Many of the middle class people that do not live in the resorts do not have the money to pay for the expensive private schools Hawaii offer so they are stuck with the decision of staying in Hawaii and having their childrens education suffer or moving to the mainland and giving up all the other beauties Hawaii has to offer.