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Hawaii Schools to Close on Most Fridays

| Wed Oct. 21, 2009 11:08 AM PDT

— Photo used under Creative Common license from Flickr user dok1

Students in Hawaii who have dreamt of longer weekends and shorter school weeks just got their wishes granted. As a way to trim the state's ballooning education budget, a new teachers' union contract chops 17 Fridays off the remaining academic calendar for the state's 171,000 public school students, the Associated Press reports. The President's home state will now have just 163 instructional days, while most states have 180.

The decision in favor of money saved, teacher layoffs prevented, and learning time lost comes as Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan are calling for students across the country to spend more time in the classroom. The President said recently that he wants students to stay late or come in on weekends because "the challenges of a new century demand more time in the classroom." Meanwhile, Hawaii already ranks near the bottom of the national education achievement barrell in terms of its test scores.

More than 80 percent of Hawaii's voting teachers approved the new contract and its 17 furlough Fridays, but the decision has many parents and education advocates up in arms. Some working parents are scrambling to find day care, while parents of special-needs students are threatening to sue the state. "It's just not enough time for kids to learn," Valerie Sonoda, president of the Hawaii State Parent Teacher Student Association told the Associated Press. "I'm getting hundreds of calls and e-mails. They all have the same underlying concern, and that is the educational hours of the kids."

Hawaii is not alone in its teaching budget cuts. California, Florida, and New Mexico have also asked teachers to take unpaid furlough days, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. But few if any furlough days in other states fall on dates that would otherwise have been used for classroom instruction.

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Jessica Calefati is an editorial intern at Mother Jones. For more of her stories, click here.

Comments

Hawaii's public schools

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed Oct. 21, 2009 12:28 PM PDT.

Having lived in Hawaii for 21 years I can assure you that the schools there are among some of the worst in the country, not least because of the pervasive teacher's unions (Hawaii may be the most left-wing state in the Union)

Therefore I sacrificed to send my kids to private school (Punahou) which is Obama's alma mater. His grandparents though did not have to sacrifice to do so - they were very well to do. But of course the myth is that Obama is from the hood. It is to laugh.

Well now, let's get real

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed Oct. 21, 2009 2:41 PM PDT.

As a product of Hawaii's public schools (and then Stanford Jr. College and back to a Hawaii public institution for a post-graduate degree), I agree our schools are miserable, but basically so is U.S. education. I must say, I went K-12 at the local public schools and there wasn't anything at old Leland Jr.'s college for which I was unprepared. And by the way, Punahou is an academic joke - it's academic standards were generally below (at least a substantial population of) my public high school, and the money and drugs that the dumb rich kids have in abundance made all those Punahou proms I attended (my girlfriend went there) look like a scene from Less Than Zero. But, since my school's "home" field was at some other school, Punahou's incredible athletic and other facilities were something to behold as a kid.

Anyway, our problem is that our largest employer is the State, when I was in school the word was that no teacher had ever been fired for cause, and Hawaii has a republican governor who makes Palin look enlightened and intelligent (in case you need confirmation, Palin is anything but). Hawaii's government needs some streamlining, but doing so in conformity with basic legal obligations (collective bargaining anyone?) would prevent the silly injunctions and failures to act.

One of the biggest problems

Submitted by hawaii parent (not verified) on Wed Oct. 21, 2009 11:49 PM PDT.

One of the biggest problems in the Hawaii education system is that it is a STATE system. The state controls all of the public education in the state, instead of local school boards. They do not make practical decisions and the system is too big for tight control of curriculum, etc. They even let 4 year olds start Kindergarten, as long as they turn 5 by December. It's unbelievable.
But....you can't blame the teachers. My children have had excellent teachers-disciplined and innovative. They are working hard despite the system that they are subjected to.
Hawaii's DOE needs a complete overhaul. Too much beaurocratic red tape.

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