Fate of $75M Hawaii schools grant still uncertain

HONOLULU (AP) — The fate of Hawaii's $75 million Race to the Top grant remains uncertain after teachers turned down a proposed contract that would have removed a major stumbling block in delivering on promised reforms.

Members of the Hawaii State Teachers Association on Thursday voted 2-1 against the deal that would have included moving toward a performance-based compensation system. If the contract was ratified, a labor dispute against the state would have been dropped and negotiations could have started on reforms promised by the state in winning the federal money.

Last month, the U.S. Department of Education admonished Hawaii for its "unsatisfactory" performance under the grant the state won last year in a high profile competition, saying it was placing the state under "high risk" status.

One of the major deadlines the state missed was implementing financial incentives for teachers to work in low-income, low-performing communities of Waianae and Nanakuli on Oahu and Kau, Keaau and Pahoa on the Big Island. Wil Okabe, the president of the union, had anticipated that once the agreement was finalized, negotiations could begin on those incentives.

National education policy observers will be watching to see if the administration makes good on the threat.

"This is a bit of a double-dare to the U.S. Secretary of Education," Frederick Hess, director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C., said Friday. "This is really a direct challenge to him. Hawaii has really become the poster child for implementation challenges for Race to the Top."

The vote made it difficult to do anything but revoke the grant, said Michael J. Petrilli, executive vice president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a national education policy think-tank in Washington. "All eyes are on (U.S. Secretary of Education) Arne Duncan to see if he's going to follow through on his tough statement that states are going to be held accountable for their promises."

Gov. Neil Abercrombie said he was disappointed in the teachers' vote, suggesting the rank-and-file members might not have been made fully aware of the contract proposal's terms. "I can't think of anything we did not do to try to accommodate the teachers' representatives in this agreement," he said Friday.

Abercrombie stressed the state can continue to move forward on critical reform initiatives without a new contract, though he encouraged the teachers' union to submit proposals. "We want to move as quickly as possible to resolve this situation," he said.

The tentative agreement addressed a number of issues raised by the U.S. Department of Education when it put Hawaii on high-risk status, but Abercrombie said progress can be made under the existing contract. Ratification would have shown significant advancement in Hawaii's Race efforts, but the state is still in the running for funding, he added.

"This is no ordinary grant. Race to the Top is about transforming our education system," he said. "We are committed to making the necessary changes in providing the best learning environment for our teachers and students."

Hawaii's state Senate issued a statement Friday urging for a "fair agreement" to be reached "to secure the Race to the Top funding that we are now in danger of losing."

Days before the Education Department expressed concern, Hawaii's assistant superintendent for strategic reform who is overseeing the Race to the Top effort, acknowledged struggling with timelines and the challenges of moving forward without a formalized union agreement.

Stephen Schatz said Friday that "we remain committed to our plans to reform Hawaii's public education system." Hawaii is the nation's 10th largest school system and the only statewide district in the country.

"Our concerns have been clear and very public, and those haven't changed," said Justin Hamilton, a spokesman for the education department.

Under the rejected contract, teachers and other public employees would have continued to see a 5 percent pay cut as a cost-saving measure for the state. After June 30, 2013, teachers would have moved to a new salary schedule that recognized their years of service with the state Department of Education and moved to a revised teacher evaluation system that allows for annual 1 percent step increases.

Many teachers expressed concern about the evaluation component. "Teachers are scared to death of evaluation systems," Petrilli said.

"Even with the Race to the Top money at stake, even after the secretary has called them out, still they refused to sign on to principles they had already endorsed," Hess said. "It's going to become a frequent illustration of how resistant unions are to change."