Bill defies a warning to prohibit teachers’ free travel

A legislative committee approved a bill Friday that would allow public school teachers in Hawaii to travel for free as chaperones on educational trips for students, despite opposition from the state Ethics Commission.

The bill would offer an exemption from the state Ethics Code to state employees — including teachers — who take part in extracurricular service that is related to their jobs. They would be allowed to receive “detached remuneration,” including free travel, under certain conditions.

Rep. Roy Takumi (D, Pearl City-Pearl Harbor) and House Judiciary Chairman Karl Rhoads (D, Chinatown-Iwilei-Kalihi) introduced House Bill 1713 in response to a controversial opinion issued by the Ethics Commission last year that led to the cancellation of numerous field trips, from band performances to tours of the nation’s capital.

The commission advised teachers not to accept free airline tickets, lodging and other benefits as chaperones on educational trips that they organize and promote in conjunction with tour companies. Doing so, it said, was a conflict of interest because they were acting as a representative of the tour company as well as a state employee. It also would violate the law prohibiting state employees from accepting costly gifts, attorneys said.

At Friday’s committee hearing, legislators expressed frustration at the commission’s decision to meddle in what has been a long-standing practice. Rep. Matthew LoPresti (D, Ewa Villages-Ewa Beach), a philosophy professor, chastised the commission for its “overly broad and nitpicking application” of the Ethics Code.

“The way the commission has chosen to go out of its way to target teachers, to target children, I think that’s eroded confidence in the Ethics Commission,” he said. “There is a lot of unethical things that the commission could be focusing on.”

The bill passed out of the House Committee on Labor and Public Employment with amendments and the backing of all eight members present. It now goes to the Judiciary Committee.

Virginia Chock, staff attorney for the commission, testified against the bill, calling it overly broad. She warned that the legislation could allow virtually any extracurricular activity by any employee to avoid ethical scrutiny, including, for example, accepting expensive dinners or golf outings to review a product that the state is considering purchasing.

“It is unnecessary to change the state Ethics Code so that teachers may accept free travel from tour companies, the value of which, for certain trips, may exceed $6,000,” Chock said. “The Department of Education can create a process by which the trips are organized and arranged that does not involve the teachers who will chaperone the students.”

Chock said the teacher travel problem could be solved if an administrator arranged the trip, chose the tour company and the chaperones, and accepted the free travel benefits that would then be used by the teacher chaperones.

But Corey Rosenlee, president of the Hawaii State Teachers Association, called it unrealistic for administrators to shoulder those tasks.

“That’s never going to happen,” he said. “Think of Campbell (High School) with 190 teachers. A principal is not going to organize all those trips.”

He asked legislators to think about the effort that goes into planning their own trips, and imagine handling that for groups of students, given the rules and complexities of travel with minors.

Teachers donate their time to arrange trips and accompany students, receive no pay for chaperoning and should not have to pay out of pocket for their expenses as well, he said.

“I think everyone here is supportive of teachers, and we were all quite shocked at the ethics ruling,” said Rep. Joy San Buenaventura, (D, Hawaiian Acres-Kalapana).