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Just a few years ago, a sermon was delivered by a far-right religious leader in Wailuku that began with the pastor spitting out the declaration that Hawaii was now considered the most liberal state in the union, surpassing even California. He went on that day to stump at the pulpit for the election of George W. Bush.
Flash forward to today, when a group of Democrats in the state Legislature, urged on by our Democratic governor, passed in the wee hours of the morning bills that Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker and his cronies in the Legislature would be proud of: bills that strip collective bargaining from the teachers union.
The Republican Party has a platform that includes attacks on unions and collective bargaining. Ironically, Wisconsin’s Walker and his GOP colleagues in that state’s Legislature aimed first at teacher tenure, then followed up by outlawing collective bargaining by public employee unions. Their constituents are wealthy campaign contributors to whom unions are impediments to their bottom line.
Opposing them were the Democratic legislators who had not forgotten that Wisconsin gave birth to unionization in America. Those legislators knew full well who their constituents were, among them the teachers, the police officers, the firefighters and all the public servants who make government work.
Apparently, many within Hawaii’s Democratic Party no longer recognize where their support is. If this is true, they should be honest about it and switch parties.
Rep. Roy Takumi, chairman of the state House Education Committee, and his Senate counterpart, Jill Tokuda, led the charge on a bill passed through the Finance Committee last week that mirrors the Wisconsin legislation that allows Hawaii’s Board of Education appointed by Gov. Neil Abercrombie to unilaterally change the teachers contract.
The bill, Senate Bill 2789 SD2, HD2, was originally written to extend the probationary period for new teachers. It was amended to provide the Board of Education "the directive, means, and flexibility to establish a performance management system that includes an evaluation of teachers and educational officers," according to the bill’s summary.
That was the main sticking point for rejecting the last proposal. This bill effectively removes teacher evaluation as negotiable.
Abercrombie had been smarting from the failure of his bully tactics to coerce teachers to accept his "best and final offer" for a contract. He needed the agreement to appease the federal Department of Education, which was threatening to take back funding to the state under its Race to the Top program unless the teachers were on board.
Abercrombie went next to the Legislature to go around the union and make his demands law, citing "Right to Work" states that had done the same (all incidentally Republican-controlled). When some of the Democratic stalwarts balked, the governor personally contacted them, demanding to know why they would disobey the titular head of the Democratic Party in Hawaii. The implied threat was clear in regard to their own legislation.
The times are indeed a-changin’. A fox is in the hen house. The wolves have donned sheep’s clothing.
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