May 31 was supposed to be the last day of employment for Molokai Middle School social studies teacher Michael Hino. He had filed all of his retirement paperwork. He was prepared to vacate his classroom after 25 years teaching for the state Department of Education.
But then the state Legislature in early May passed
a budget that included
$130 million to fix salary “compression” for the nearly 9,000 public and charter school teachers whose pay has lagged behind appropriate levels for their experience. Hino’s salary, it turned out, would rise five “steps” on that salary schedule, a difference of thousands of dollars.
So he “unretired.”
“I had to hurry and send in all my paperwork to take back my retirement request,” Hino said. “I changed my plans to retire, because correcting the (salary) compressions, for me, sent the message that experience does matter and that it’s
valued.”
Hino was among four veteran teachers featured Monday in a Hawaii State Teachers Association online news conference themed as an “unretirement party,” to publicly express thanks for, and discuss the effects of, the salary adjustments included in the budget signed this month by Gov. David Ige. House Speaker Scott Saiki and House Ways and Means Chair Sylvia Luke also spoke, voicing appreciation for teachers.
Salaries are being raised by $7,700 to $26,000 for those thousands of educators for whom salary “step movements” occasionally have been held back by the state in economically lean years. The schools will
lose far fewer teachers to
retirements over the next few years thanks to those fixes, said teachers union President Osa Tui Jr.
The four teachers shared their personal stories of how the pay increases have made them feel seen and appreciated, and moved them to opt for additional years teaching and mentoring both students and new, incoming teachers. They also said they anticipate improvements to the frugal quality of life many teachers have, and said it will allow some to give up second or third jobs and concentrate on their main mission of educating keiki.
Hawaii can ill afford to lose teachers during a chronic educator shortage that has hobbled the state and nation.
According to the HSTA, Hawaii schools were forced to fill teacher vacancies with more than 1,000 emergency hires and long-term substitutes in the 2018-2019 school year, the most recent year for which the union had data. Each year more than 60,000 keiki are not taught by a Hawaii Qualified Teacher, the union said.
The stress of the COVID-
19 pandemic has worsened the teacher shortage, with national surveys showing a surge in the number of teachers planning to retire or change professions. Retiring Hawaii teachers spiked to 428 in pandemic year 2020-21, after hovering between 274 and 338 in the 2016-2017 to 2019-2020 school years, according to HSTA statistics.
But now Maui teacher Ashley Olson is among those postponing retirement plans.
Olson said in the news conference that she had expected to retire in 2024 from Lahainaluna High School, where she is the English language learners department chair and coordinator. Olson said to make ends meet she used to work additional hours at a Starbucks, and she would multitask helping students who sought her at the coffee shop to get help with schoolwork.
The pay adjustments have persuaded the 28-year teacher to stay longer at Lahainaluna, but she still worries about the negative effect lower pay over years has had on thousands of teachers’ lifetime Social Security earnings and state retirement amounts.
With the salary fixes, which Tui said should start showing up in paychecks in a few weeks, “I have an opportunity to improve my state pension,” Olson said, “and it means students at Lahainaluna High School are not going to lose my institutional knowledge, my love of the school community, my experience and my expertise, for a little while longer.
“It bodes well of the stabilization of the teaching profession. … I feel like we’re repeating that it’s such a big deal, it’s such a big deal — but it is such a big deal.”
