The state Department of Education has procrastinated during the past decade to compensate substitute and part-time teachers for past underpayment of wages. While trying to climb out of the economic ditch, state legislators nonetheless need to regard the money owed to these teachers as part of the state budget to keep the debt from escalating further.
The department underpaid thousands of substitute teachers in violation of a 1996 law requiring that they be paid the same per diem rate as a certain class of full-time teacher (those with a bachelor’s degree but no advanced training). From 1996 until 2005, substitute teachers’ hourly pay rose by 11 percent, while pay for their full-time class equivalents increased by 40 percent. Part-time teachers — those limited to 17.5 hours a week at about $20 an hour — were similarly underpaid.
Unrepresented by the Hawaii State Teachers Association or any other union, the estimated 30,000 substitutes and part-timers have relied upon class-action lawsuits to gain fair treatment. The state Supreme Court has refused to overturn a ruling by the state Intermediate Court of Appeals, in effect backing the substitute teachers’ claim that they had been underpaid. A judge’s ruling similarly in favor of part-time teachers in a class action lawsuit has yet to reach that level of appeal.
“Every day the state delayed paying this debt, it hurt the teachers,” said Paul Alston, their attorney, said in response to the high court’s opinion a year ago. Attorneys say the two class-action lawsuits could cost the state as much as $100 million, including interest and attorney fees. Any payoff must be approved by the state Legislature, which declined to fund any legal claims against the state in this year’s session.
The Abercrombie administration should require that settlement of the case be included in the state’s yearly education budget, like it or not. State Sen. Jill Tokuda, chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee, seems to recognize that obligation. “This has been an ongoing issue,” she told the Star-Advertiser’s Mary Vorsino. “We do need to settle these particular issues. It’s not going to go away.”
Indeed, left unchecked, it will continue to grow, even though the Legislature enacted a law three years ago that requires wages of substitute and part-time teachers be adjusted to pay hikes awarded by regular teachers in negotiations between HSTA and the state. That does not pay what is owed those teachers from previous years, and that amount rises each year.
The final settlement amount must still be reached — it could be as high as $100 million, but maybe not — and it’s hoped that the affected teachers realize the fiscal restraints of these times. The state’s commitment to reconcile this debt, meanwhile, would rightly reflect the value it places on its teachers. Bottom line: It is time to pay it off to end taxpayer costs toward making those increases in interest, and to resolve a festering situation.
