HSTA must open election process

Unrest within Hawaii’s powerful teachers union has burst into public view via a tainted election that undermines the Hawaii State Teachers Association’s credibility with its own members and with the larger community.

Interest in this matter is not limited to members of the union, which represents Hawaii’s 13,500 public-school teachers; or even to the Department of Education, which employs them; or to families whose children attend public schools, which educate a total of 180,895 students statewide.

Given the public school system’s unique structure, with one statewide school district that confers enormous influence on the HSTA as a single collective-bargaining unit, the organization’s educational, economic and political reach extends throughout the public and private sectors in Hawaii. How goes the HSTA is of interest to everyone, even if only those who are members get to decide directly, by electing the union’s leadership.

Fair, transparent elections are essential to the membership authority under which the HSTA operates and on which the integrity of the organization depends. The latest HSTA election has fallen alarmingly short of that standard, not, we suspect, because of actual widespread voting irregularities, but rather due to the board’s decisions after the ballots were cast.

On a 21-8 vote, the HSTA Board of Directors refused to certify or release the election results, over vaguely defined voting "irregularities." A new election will be held June 2, just as school ends. By failing to release the election results, or the scope of the supposed irregularities, the board makes it impossible to assess whether its decision was fair and this has outraged teachers who understandably are suspicious that the fix is in.

At the very least, the board must provide quantifiable information verifying that problems were widespread enough to affect the outcome of the races. HSTA President Wil Okabe’s assertions that "many" teachers and "several" board members did not receive ballots are too vague to justify the extreme decision to reject an election by members — members the board is supposed to represent, not supersede.

Moreover, when did supposedly disenfranchised HSTA members lodge their complaints? While they could have voted or after they realized that they should have? Who got the most votes seems to be an open secret within the HSTA; regret over failing to vote when it mattered may drive some protests.

Absent verifiable and impactful voting irregularities, the HSTA should certify and release the vote.

More than the fate of individual candidates running for HSTA president, vice president and secretary-treasurer hangs in the balance. This is a pivotal moment for the current HSTA board and executive leadership, now seen as obstructionists trying to control the flow of information in an age when teachers dispersed across the islands are connected via social media, online outlets they are taking to with gusto to vent their displeasure over the turn of events.

Using the umbrella hashtag #tellusnow, teachers are calling out the board’s lack of transparency, collecting signatures on an online petition and commenting on the union’s Facebook page, a forum far more public than its website, where most content is shielded behind a membership login. The Facebook pages of the opposing slates of candidates, Hawaii Teachers Work To The Rules and Team 2015 for Hawaii Teachers, likewise offer a glimpse into the divisive debate, and therefore into the future of Hawaii’s public schools.

What’s at stake for the union now carries much higher risks than a single leadership election, and for much longer than a two-year term: Unless the HSTA board credibly justifies its actions or reverses its decision, how will the union regain the trust of the members from whom it derives so much clout?