Kumbaya" is usually a happy song to hear coming from the political battlefield, but the notes all could turn sour if they signal that a bad decision is in the offing.

The Hawaii State Teachers Association board pounced last week on an off-the-cuff remark by Gov. Neil Abercrombie to a retired HSTA member indicating that he was open to talks, and then took a vote authorizing a mediation process that could lead to binding arbitration. In other words: We’re giving up our right to strike, so let’s go back to the bargaining table. But the union has made no specific counterproposals, which suggests they want to reopen everything.

Judging by Abercrombie’s statement Monday, he’s not biting, and that’s good to hear. Making minor contract amendments targeting any outstanding non-cost issues might be possible, but the argument for reopening all the issues is a weak one.

The contract, which the governor implemented unilaterally as the "last, best and final offer," is in place. There seems very little upside from the students’ perspective to a major disruption at this point, Week Two of the 2011-12 school year.

The Department of Education and the Abercrombie administration in general has everything to lose from binding arbitration at this point. If history is our guide, the process usually ends up in an order that splits the difference between the two sides in the dispute. And an order that gives the state less than 5 percent in labor savings could simply enlarge the fiscal mess the state already faces.

The administration reached its first accord with the Hawaii Government Employees Association early this year and agreed to reward the union with a "favored nation" clause. This means that if arbitration were to produce a pay settlement more favorable to the HSTA, the state would have to improve the HGEA deal, too.

And nobody can afford to forget that some important contracts — with United Public Workers and the HGEA’s registered nurses unit among them — are still outstanding. Surely all the unions are watching what happens in the teachers’ standoff.

The best case HSTA leaders can make is to push for making teacher evaluations reform a contract issue. Creating performance evaluations that factor in student academic progress is something the state has pledged in return for its federal Race to the Top grant. The DOE needs teachers’ cooperation on that.

Otherwise, it would seem that the ship has sailed on HSTA’s preferred outcome to the contract fight this time. The union’s leaders should instead look forward to what might be achieved in future talks, once the current contract ends in two years. The governor will be staring a re-election campaign in the face at that point, and would need the union’s support.

For the short term, the state owes its teachers the best deal it can manage under tight constraints, and the implemented contract seems a reasonable approximation.

The HSTA board, naturally, was seeking to eke out more in the 11th hour of talks — but was caught short when the governor ordered implementation of the state’s "last, best and final" offer on July 1. The HSTA is fully within its rights, as it has, to grieve that manuever to the state labor board, a process that may provide much-needed guidance in future public union negotiations. But it is grasping at silly straws if it expects an off-hand comment from the governor to a retired HSTA member to do the heavy lifting in turning back time and reopening contract talks.