Responding to pressure from public school teachers, state lawmakers backed away Tuesday from legislation that would have required teacher performance evaluations.
The Hawaii State Teachers Association had conducted an extensive lobbying campaign against the legislation, arguing that it would infringe on collective bargaining rights. House lawmakers chose to recommit the bill, essentially killing it for the session, rather than bring it to the floor for a vote. Senate leaders, who had amended the bill to delay its effective date, indicated after the House action that senators would also recommit the bill Thursday.
Gov. Neil Abercrombie and House and Senate lawmakers who oversee education say teacher evaluations would help ensure more accountability and improve student performance. The state has committed to teacher evaluations as part of its acceptance of federal stimulus money and a $75 million federal Race to the Top grant.
Abercrombie and key lawmakers contend that the nature and scope of teacher evaluations are not subject to collective bargaining, although how such evaluations intersect with teacher salaries would have to be negotiated. The state reached an agreement Tuesday with the Hawaii Government Employees Association on an evaluation system for school principals that includes the academic growth of students.
Don Horner, chairman of the state Board of Education, said after the House action that the school board is committed to performance evaluations. "We are committed to move forward with an evaluation process that accurately reflects the performance of our employees and is based upon a mutually agreed set of professional and student growth objectives as well as mutual trust," he said in a statement. "We have outstanding educators and a fair, consistent and effective evaluation system is critical to ensure their professionalism is recognized, encouraged and rewarded."
The teachers union mobilized rank-and-file teachers against the legislation by comparing it to anti-union moves by Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican.
Wil Okabe, president of the teachers union, told teachers in a message Tuesday that the House action was a "tremendous win" for teachers and students. He said fundamental issues that affect teacher livelihood should be addressed with the state at the bargaining table.
"Teachers are very concerned about evaluations. They’re concerned about the tools of evaluation," he said. "HSTA wants to be able to sit down with our employer" and negotiate the evaluation system.
While the teachers union succeeded in blocking the legislation, the union’s aggressive tactics — particularly the comparison with Wisconsin — might have alienated allies and rekindled criticism that the union is a barrier to school improvement.
Lawmakers had inserted a requirement for principal performance contracts in an education-reform law in 2004, but it took until Tuesday for the state and HGEA to agree. Criteria for performance evaluations have been in state law since 1996.
"This was an attempt to say, well, teachers also should be under some sort of performance contract. But the details would be worked out by the board, and if it involved financial incentives, then of course it would have to be negotiated," said Rep. Roy Takumi (D, Pearl City-Pacific Palisades), chairman of the House Education Committee.
Sen. Jill Tokuda (D, Kaneohe-Kailua), chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee, said she was disappointed given the state’s progress with principals.
"I know that what we were asking all of our colleagues to do took a lot of political will. We were asking them to be very courageous. But I also believe we were asking them to do something that was good for students and that was very good for teachers as well," she said.
Tokuda also disagreed with the rhetoric used by the teachers union. "I definitely feel that there was a gross overstatement in calling us Wisconsin," she said.
The decision to kill the teacher evaluation bill came as the House and Senate positioned hundreds of bills to exchange between chambers Thursday, the last step before lawmakers move into conference committee to develop the final versions.
The Senate approved its draft of a $11.1 billion supplemental state budget that includes additional money for education, welfare and health care for the poor. Senators also moved their signature legislation, a $500 million investment in bond-financed state construction to reduce the repair and maintenance backlog at public schools, hospitals and other public buildings.
The House, which has supported a request by Abercrombie for $300 million in new bond-financed construction, approved a streamlined procurement process and a controversial bill that would temporarily give the governor the authority to exempt certain types of state construction projects from environmental review.
"I think it’s a philosophical difference that we still have, and we’ll try to iron through it in conference," said state Senate President Shan Tsutsui (D, Wailuku-Kahului).
The House moved a bill that creates a regulatory framework for an interisland electric transmission cable, a priority for the Abercrombie administration. A Republican amendment that would have excluded Lanai and Molokai from an interisland cable project was rejected.
The Senate kept alive a bill that would establish a consumer fee for single-use checkout bags to discourage use and generate money for environmental protection, an idea that has an uncertain future in the House. Senators also moved a bill that would give the state Office of Hawaiian Affairs flexibility for residential development near the waterfront at Kakaako, a proposal that the House has said it would not hear.
The House approved a bill that would provide an income tax credit for hotel construction and renovation that would be financed by an extension of a hotel-room tax increase beyond its scheduled sunset.
The House and Senate also advanced competing proposals on how to restrict a tax credit for photovoltaic systems that some lawmakers believe is costing the state more money than expected. Senators moved a bill, meanwhile, that would enhance film and digital media tax credits to help lure more movie and television productions to the islands.
