Some Good News from the Hawaii State Capitol
Oct 22nd, 2009 by Capsun
As we brace ourselves for the full impact of the first Furlough Friday tomorrow, I wanted to share some good news. One of the most informative blogs I follow is the Hawaii House Blog, the blog of the House Majority. It’s written by Georgette Deemer and Thelma Dreyer.
And all three of the stories I want to highlight are from them:
- First, even with the Furlough Fridays, the Hawaii State Capitol will remain open on furlough days. With all the negativity swirling around, this is an opportunity for the Legislature and Capitol employees to shine. And, I must say that it would not be a very reassuring message if the Capitol, home to the Legislative branch as well as the offices of the Governor and Lt. Governor, was to close. So citizens can know that government at the highest level is still functioning – although, with an extremely small skeleton crew.
- Second, the Legislature is hiring for the upcoming session. In this economy, that is probably more welcome news to many than is normal. Until recently, it was a challenge to fill positions, but I had several reports that this past session had some of the largest number of applicants. Surely, a sign of the times.
- Finally, for those families who will be impacted by the Furlough Fridays, they link to a bunch of resources for educational and enrichment services.
I hope to have more discussion tomorrow about the First Furlough Friday, pending any developments of the parent lawsuit in Federal court. Stay tuned!
Mahalo!
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Parent law suit — that doesn’t surprise me. The special ed kids already don’t get all the Federal services they deserve. The Hawaii Department of Ed may be in for some major restructuring. You know, this furlough thing might just turn out to be positive after all, but in a whole different way then the government envisioned.
I read that the parent lawsuits failed to block the first two furlough fridays. From what I understand of the matter, Quilly is correct about the special ed kids, except replace “deserve” with “shall, by law, receive”. But this lawsuit effort strikes me as ineffective at best, and, at worst, mere grandstanding by a couple of publicity-hounding lawyers. If folk were truly serious, those lawsuits would have been presented within hours of the standover ratification of the teacher contract. I expected nothing different, however; a society that tolerates private schools, any private schools, never mind one that raises them to the pinnacles upon which they’re set in Hawai‘i, has already consigned its non-elites to the dustbin.
There are some who would put a different construction on the state political offices being open on this first furlough friday: “they can dish it out but they can’t take it.” See also “rich getting richer”, and “no person’s life or property is safe while the Legislature is in session.”
I’m appalled at this. The furlough the teachers but then have jobs opening at the state? What’s up with that? Make the Legislators work harder with less people I say. If they have enough money to hire them, why couldn’t that money go for our education system? Our children are our future but yet we are going to give them less education? It disgusts me that they are hiring when that money could go to our teachers. Something just isn’t right here.
Quilly: Interesting thought…we’ll have to wait to see what comes of all this.
amoeba and Thom: I hadn’t thought of it in a negative light. Thank you for sharing your point of view…I’m sure many would agree with what you’ve shared. I remain hopeful that something can be done to avoid our state having the fewest instructional days in the country.