Pubdate: Tue, 13 May 2008
Source: Honolulu Advertiser (HI)
Copyright: 2008 The Honolulu Advertiser, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.
Contact:  http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/195
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Testing)

ISLE SCHOOLS ILL-SERVED BY DRUG-TEST IMPASSE

Compromise is difficult, even under the friendliest circumstances. 
But when there's a virtual standoff -- as there is in the dispute 
over drug testing of public school teachers -- the difficult becomes 
impossible.

The stalemate is not on negotiating the ground rules for testing, or 
on the type of sampling and tests to be used; negotiations on this 
issue are proceeding well.

It's on who's going to foot the bills. And on that score, the Lingle 
administration and the Board of Education have reached an impasse.

There's been no movement for months, and the budget cutbacks 
legislated in the just-finished legislative session have dropped the 
temperature in this particular cold war a few more degrees.

June 30 is the date set in the teachers' contracts for the program to 
launch, under a memorandum of agreement struck last year. Since then, 
the administration has insisted that the DOE budget could squeeze out 
enough money to cover costs. It's hard to see how the governor could 
be so certain, since the costs won't be known until the test 
technology and procedures are set.

For its part, the board asserts its legal interpretation: The 
agreement merely gives the DOE, as employer, the option to conduct 
the drug tests but doesn't compel them. This view ignores the fact 
that agreement was used as a bargaining chip to secure raises for the 
teachers, who stand ready to implement the program.

Administration officials point to DOE budget categories with 
surpluses that they argue could be used; the school board counters 
that these are the same areas likely to feel the pinch because of the 
recent budget cuts.

In other words, both sides have gone to their respective corners and 
refuse to budge.

Surely there's room in the middle to meet and find the funds for the 
program. But so far, there's been a stubborn reluctance to give an 
inch, with very little communication between agencies.

This is what it means to be a public servant?

This kind of brinksmanship could lead to a legal dispute over how 
enforceable the agreement is, a clash that makes both sides look bad 
and serves the taxpayers not at all.

Good-faith discussions aimed at assembling the finances need to 
accelerate immediately.

About $2 billion is piped into the DOE annually. For that amount of 
money the public expects its government to get off the dime, settle 
this mess and move on to tackle other challenges in the education of 
our children. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake