More than 2,000 teachers protest lack of contract at Capitol

Where's the parents camping out in the Gov's office this time around? No where because a republican isn't in office.

Teachers are overpaid - or else we are all underpaid. Governor stay firm! Why should they get more every year ? So we are allowed topay higher and higher taxes? All this is causing inflation - but no better student achievement at all. Because the main reason for poor students are their parents. Does that say something about the population mix?

This just goes to show that it wasn't really about the kids.

stand up for education does not equal pay raises for teachers.

No Teachers = No Teaching. The teachers need to make a liveable wage, they took paycuts for 4 years, now the state has a $300 million dollar surplus of which $180 million came from the paycuts the teachers took. Time to pay it back ! The Governor wants to pay them in 2009 wages in 2013 with a 2% raise ( which adds up to $25 a paycheck ). If the Governor forces a strike ( which is the teachers only alternative to making less money in 2013-2015 than they did in 2009 after factoring in inflation ) then all the schools will be shut down, as No Teachers = No Teaching , and all the people of Hawaii suffer. The ball is in the Governors court.. offer a livable wage ( the teachers are asking for 4% ) or force a strike. The choice is the Governors .

Teachers are overpaid??? How are teachers overpaid? I am a teacher with a master's degree and after taxes I take home a little over a grand every two weeks. Is that really overpaid? This is my sixth year teaching and because of this best last offer crap I have had no pay increases since I started teaching even after I got my masters degree in education. This is the very reason that many new teachers leave this profession and go into something else. I work a second job in the food industry and if I worked there full time I would make more than what I make now. Don't you think that sends a wrong message to society? Why go to college and get a degree when you can just work in the food industry with no education and make more than someone who is a teacher with a masters. If you're answer is to just quit then maybe you're right because that is what many new teachers do when they find out that they will never make ends meet in this profession. People can use the line "what about the kid?" but we are human also and we need to eat and pay bills just like you do. I'm not saying ALL teachers are ALL about the kids but I think most of them are. This is the only reason I have stuck it out this long but reality is reality and as much as I love making a difference I one day have a dream of buying my own place and maybe not having to work a second night job just to make ends meet. If you want to complain about taxes and etc. maybe we should ask the politicians to take a pay cut. The working class people always need to suffer but what about the executives, governors, superintendents, university presidents, and etc. Teachers are not the only ones that are underpaid but please do not single out teachers and say that we are "overpaid". If you think we are overpaid for what we do then please step in our shoes and make a difference in the future of Hawaii and become a teacher. Then our state doesn't have to waste so much money recruiting teachers from outside of Hawaii.

BS! 90% of the teachers have a husband who is making just as much or more than their husband so their household is making close to or more than $100,000!

No more raises and no more new spending until the ERS is FULLY funded with another $22 BILLION DOLLARS!!!

Student enrollment has held steady at about 180,000 per year for 30 years. Since then, teacher salaries have more than TRIPLED!!! What are the results year after year? That's right. Way below the national average.

Screw the Teachers and especially the TEACHER's UNION!

BS!!!! 90% of the teachers have a husband who is making just as much or more than their husband so their household is making close to or more than $100,000!

No more raises and no more new spending until the ERS is FULLY funded with another $22 BILLION DOLLARS!!!

Student enrollment has held steady at about 180,000 per year for 30 years. Since then, teacher salaries have more than TRIPLED!!! What are the results year after year? That's right. Way below the national average.

Skrew the Teachers and especially the TEACHER's UNION!!!!

100,000 parents should be protesting that only 15% of our public school kids complete college

Sad to say our teachers just don't get it. Whining about no contract yet not wanting to talk about their failures under other contract negotiations. Like to talk about zero tolerance for students but does not apply to them. As in they feel it is ok if teachers use drugs, not wanting to conduct urinalysis to look for teacher drug users. Setting a very poor example for students. Teachers are supposed to lead by example, sad to say not being done. Before teachers ask for more, might help to look in the mirror. Also might help to find someone who can be a quality union leader. Current management isn't cutting it. Again, if you want respect, it must be earned.

Having been a state teacher and a mililtary officer ,I can say that the cultures of both professions are quite different. In the military, you are expected to work as a team until the mission is completed by everyone and you do it until it hurts. As a teacher I noticed everybody does their own thing and goes home after they feel they did a days work. When any teacher is unable to keep up, there is no "leader" to muster help from the others. My thinking is that if state teachers want to make a difference, their culture needs to be changed to work as a team. I know some principals get it and you can see that their schools always do well. Maybe schools should be given monetary awards for doing well, and they can decide to split up the money or buy school supplies.

No, teacher, you guys want to screw us tax payers for 4 percent for four consecutive years. How many state or city and county workers are getting raises? If the teachers get a raise, everyone should get a pay raise. What makes teachers so special that they can get a raise while everyone has to continue to work with pay cuts? We don't have the money to pay the raises so the teachers suggested that we raise the excise tax to cover their raises. If you are for the teachers, you are for a raise in the excise tax. I don't know about you but I am struggling just to make ends meet. The teacher say they are struggling. Hello, we are also struggling. Raising the excise tax takes food away from our children's mouths. Shame on the teachers.

Why bother with contract ? Teachers don't live up to them anyway. I'm still trying to figure out what went down with drug testing.

The teachers want a four percent pay cut for four consecutive years. How many state or city and county workers are getting a raise? We cannot afford to pay their raises so they suggested we raise the excise tax. Raising the excise tax takes away food from our tables. Food for our children. If they teachers are going to get a raise, then everyone else should get a raise. We are all struggling. Not just the teachers. Anyone in support of the teachers is in support for an increase in the excise tax. The teachers would be taking food from our children's mouths.

You and your cohorts are certainly not worth $22 BILLION DOLLARS and you want MORE money???? Go skrew yourself!!!!

I am so fuming at the teachers that I typed pay "cut" instead of pay "raise". That is how much the teachers mean to me and I am sure that others feel the same way. And teachers wonder why many of us have negative feelings about them. They strike us with threats of strikes and then wonder why we are fed up with them.

Drug test anyone?

State employee in the executive branch MUST agree to drug and alcohol testing as a CONDIITON to employment. Teachers? Nah. Employees in the executive branch must have a perforamce evaluation in order to get a raise. Teachers? Nah. The public is blind and stupid because they've been drinking the Kool Aid that Wil Okabe is serving. Hey, Will. Whatcha gonna do about th problems at the deaf and blind school? I betcha you're answer is gonna be that it is a concern of the State and not the union. Oh, yeah? If you were so concerned about students, you'd be ALL OVER this. But so far NOTHING! You are a sham!

Teachers don't want to strike but what other choice do teachers have? Just be a yes man and say that everything is okay when it's not. People are saying that if we get a raise than taxes will be raised and less children will be fed. You do know that teachers also have mouths to feed of their own and bills to pay right? Also, you do know that if taxes do increase that we will also be paying the higher taxes and not only you. Our governor is very smart and twisting things around and saying whatever he needs to say to make himself look like the "good" guy and make teachers look like the greedy enemies. You can never fully understand a situation unless you walk in the shoes of the person you're judging. The grass is always greener on the other side.

There were 4,590 teachers at that rally. I counted them. Anyone in government or in the public who thinks cutting educator wages for 4 years in a row, and raising medical cost 110 percent is good for educaton, is in need of an education. THose people are now classified as a dummies. Get the picture. We live in the cyber space age, not the stone age. Hawaii cannot compete with the the East nor the West in education with the lowest paid educators in the USA.

When Educators pay 35% of taxes over the last 4 years, then you have a problem Houston.

Thank God for unions. We would be like Mississippi otherwise--teaching creationism and denying climate change. Unions make schools better.