An aggressive plan to cool 1,000 public school classrooms by year’s end has lost momentum — and contractors shoulder much of the blame for submitting unreasonably high bids.

It’s shameful that students will likely have to sweat it out for another school year.

The goal of cooling sweltering classrooms in rapid fashion was tantalizingly within reach: Gov. David Ige pushed the initiative to funnel $100 million to cool the classrooms; the state Department of Education (DOE) forged ahead with a solid plan and timetable; and lawmakers in the just-ended session appropriated the funding.

But when DOE requested bids, what came back was higher than estimated, outrageously so. The highest bid was $135,000 per classroom when original field estimates were anywhere from $20,000 to $40,000 per class.

The shocking figures have forced DOE into a holding pattern, a disappointing but fiscally responsible move.

Further, its strategy to rebid most of the work, likely in early July, also makes solid sense.

Rebidding pushes back completion dates, but taxpayers, the schools and, ultimately, the students, will derive more benefits from the savings.

Just as frustrating as the supersized bids, however, is the absence of a reasonable explanation for the outrageous price hikes.

Making some profit certainly can’t be begrudged. But greed? Collusion? Gouging? All those words have come up in connection with the bloated price tags.

The construction industry should be compelled to explain to students why the bids are completely off the charts — and why they must continue to endure sauna-like conditions with solutions so close at hand.

“Something ain’t adding up. Maybe it’s human greed. Maybe incompetence of government. I don’t want to point fingers,” said state Rep. Matt LoPresti, whose district includes Ewa Beach and many of the schools at the top of the DOE heat-abatement list.

On Thursday, LoPresti rightly called for the state attorney general to investigate whether contractors are “artificially inflating bids for profit at the expense of school children.”

Conversely, he’s asking that the DOE simplify its bid requests, noting contractors have complained that bid specifications for a $20,000 project were up to 100 pages long, which makes submitting a bid expensive and complicated.

Even so, that still shouldn’t warrant bids coming in at five times the original estimates that industry representatives themselves provided.

John White, executive director of the Pacific Resource Partnership, which represents the largest construction union in the state and more than 200 contractors, disputed that labor costs were driving up the cost of public projects. But he was unable — or unwilling — to provide an acceptable reason.

“The reality is there’s no one-answer-fits-all reason why costs are going up,” White said.

For the sake of the students, we urge contractors to rethink their submissions and provide more sensible bids during the DOE’s next go-around.

Those who have submitted reasonable bids, and will soon start tackling the jobs, must be commended.

In addition, the DOE is looking at reconfiguring the work into more attractive bid packages to make the project worthwhile for contractors.

The public is well aware that the work needed in classrooms across the state is not as simple as installing a window unit purchased at a big-box store. There are reasonable expectations that costs will be higher, especially when energy-efficient systems come into play and electrical upgrades might be needed before air conditioning can be installed.

But the state cannot fall prey to overinflated, industry-driven conditions time and again.

Contractors need to be part of the solution — not the roadblock — as the state pushes forward with cooling the hottest classrooms across Hawaii.

Our public school students deserve better treatment, not to be left sweltering and lethargic in 100-degree rooms.