The teachers union is calling bills before the state House and Senate that would nullify teacher tenure protections a "direct attack on our membership."
Lawmakers, meanwhile, say the bills are aimed at spurring a thorough discussion of what tenure is.
Though the measures propose doing away with tenure, no one appears to be in favor of going that far.
But there is interest in legislatively lengthening the amount of time teachers must serve to earn tenure, and ensuring that only "effective" teachers get the extra job security.
"It’s worthy of a discussion, at least," said state Rep. Roy Takumi, chairman of the House Education Committee, who introduced House Bill 1668 with state Rep. Della Au Belatti, the committee’s vice chairwoman.
The bill, which proposes ending tenure protections on June 30 for teachers and educational officers (such as principals), will be heard Wednesday.
A companion bill in the Senate has been scheduled for a hearing Friday.
"I don’t think tenure in and of itself is the fulcrum or the tipping point on whether or not someone is an effective teacher," said Takumi (D, Pearl City-Pacific Palisades). "But should a tenure system be more reflective of the quality of a teacher in the classroom?"
The Hawaii State Teachers Association has come out in force against the proposals, urging members to submit testimony to quash the bills.
"We feel that teachers are going to be stripped away from due-process rights, to be hired and fired at will by politicians or by administrators," HSTA President Wil Okabe told the Star-Advertiser on Monday.
In a message to members Saturday, Okabe called the bills a "direct attack on our membership, our profession and a lack of recognition and respect for the valuable service that our veteran teachers provide."
He added, "It is incomprehensible that the Legislature would even consider hearing this bill that will basically negate our rights to employment without political corruption, favoritism or nepotism."
In recent years a handful of states have revoked tenure protections or made wide-scale changes to tenure, amid a national debate on how to improve the quality of the nation’s education system and move ineffective teachers out of classrooms.
Hawaii’s measures come as the state Department of Education is looking to make reforms to teacher tenure, including linking it to job performance, something the teachers union has supported.
Overhauling the tenure system is among the key education reforms the state has pledged to complete by 2014.
The DOE wants to lengthen the amount of time probationary teachers must serve to get tenure to at least three years from two years and tie achieving tenure to performance.
Changes to tenure were included in a six-year contract that teachers overwhelmingly rejected earlier this month. (The rejection did not appear to be linked, however, to changes to tenure.)
Under the contract, teachers hired next school year and later would have had to serve three years with an "effective" rating to earn tenure.
Teacher effectiveness would be based on revamped teacher evaluations that take into account student academic growth.
Currently, Hawaii teachers must serve two years with a "satisfactory" rating to earn tenure. Statistics on the percentage of probationary teachers who achieve tenure in Hawaii were not immediately available, but the DOE has said that between March 2010 and March 2011, more than 85 percent of probationary teachers who were eligible received tenure.
State Sen. Jill Tokuda, chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee, said she supports lengthening the time teachers must serve to get tenure and tying tenure to a "rigorous evaluation system."
"This is just our way of trying to facilitate movement forward," said Tokuda (D, Kaneohe-Kailua). "We have to start seeing forward movement."
Teacher tenure in Hawaii predates statehood and is designed to protect teachers from arbitrary termination. Tenure protections essentially require the DOE to follow a set of due-process rules when initiating high-stakes teacher reviews.
Though tenure is not a job guarantee, it does lengthen the process by which a principal can fire a teacher for poor performance.
According to the National Council on Teacher Quality, Hawaii is among just five states that award tenure to teachers after two years of service.
Most award tenure after three years, while teachers in nine states must wait four to five years.
Three states —Florida, Idaho and Rhode Island — have done away with teacher tenure, the council said in a recently released report.
