Abercrombie On Race To The Top: Teachers Union Deserves Blame

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The U.S. Department of Education may hold the governor responsible for the fact that Hawaii's lagging on Race to the Top goals, but Gov. Neil Abercrombie puts the blame on union leaders.

"It's being held up by people who have another agenda — a personal agenda, having to do with the internal politics of the union," Abercrombie told Hawaii Public Radio's Beth-Ann Kozlovich Thursday night on "Town Square." (Read a complete transcript of his lengthy remarks at the bottom of this story.)

"To see a situation in which the internal politics — internal politics of an organization, union or otherwise — is actually undermining the very mission and purpose for which they're organized, is a very sad thing."

The governor also said, "If the conclusion of the HSTA leadership is that they do not want to have Race to the Top...then they'll have to take the responsibility for it."

The federal education department notified Abercrombie in December that Hawaii had been placed on "high-risk status" in the federal grant program, the only state to achieve that rank. It cited Hawaii's failure to make adequate progress on key education reform promises in the 16 months since the $75 million grant was awarded.

But the state is on target with its Race to the Top assurances, the governor told the HPR audience in his most extensive public comments yet on the issue.

"The Race to the Top stuff is moving along very, very well," he said.

As for the perception that it's not, he said, the leaders of the Hawaii State Teachers Association are to blame.

He even went so far as to imply that union leaders are holding students hostage.

"The children are the ones that are the hostages to that kind of action," he said, describing the wrangling before the state labor board over the contract he imposed in July. "And the teachers are the ones that have apparently turned over their union to a lawyer."

Abercrombie said it's incorrect to think that the Race to the Top reforms have anything to do with the collective bargaining agreement that's in dispute.

"The discussion on Race to the Top — which involves teacher evaluations, which involves performance, which involves principals being able to exercise authority in poorly performing schools, and so on — has nothing to do with the collective bargaining contract that's in place," he told Kozlovich. "It never did."

However, the reforms, such as teacher evaluations and performance pay, actually do have to be negotiated with the union. They involve changes in work conditions covered by the contract.

Last year, Abercrombie and Superintendent Kathryn Matayoshi declared an impasse in negotiations and in July implemented a "last, best and final" offer on the state's 12,500 teachers with a 5 percent pay cut and increase in health costs.

Abercrombie sent mixed messages about whether negotiations on Race to the Top reforms have continued despite the legal battle over the imposed contract, and he refused to take responsibility for the reality depicted by the federal education department: The reforms have not been implemented.

He claimed that everyone else is working hard on Race to the Top while union leaders try to sabotage their efforts.

"What bothers me in all of this is, the teachers who are working on Race to the Top, who just left the Great Teachers and Great Leaders meeting, they're working on their own, out of love and dedication and commitment — professional and personal — to put all this together," Abercrombie said. "It's all in place. It's being held up by people who have another agenda — a personal agenda, having to do with the internal politics of the union."

Abercrombie did not tell listeners that the Great Teachers and Great Leaders Task Force was far behind in its efforts. Thursday was its inaugural meeting. The group was supposed to have made recommendations before negotiations for the contract imposed in July were wrapped up.

Meanwhile, Hawaii's $75 million grant hangs in the balance.

Although Abercrombie's comments about Race to the Top and all matters HSTA lasted several minutes, he managed to evade Kozlovich's question about how he plans to get the state back on track in the race.

Two separate times Kozlovich asked the governor what he planned to do to resolve the situation.

"So what do you do to conciliate all of this, bring people back and talk about it, and move it into a positive realm?

"Nothing," he replied the first time. "This is a complete misconstruing of what's taking place."

The second time, he diverted attention to the union again.

"Well, why not put it back into the hands of the teachers and get the lawyers out of it?" he said. "That might be a way to do it. I mean, I can't do anything about the internal administration of the HSTA. I can't do anything about that. Only the teachers can do something about that."

At one point, the governor went back and forth about his role in the negotiations.

"But if somebody wants me to do all the negotiating, heck, that's all right with me — no, it isn't all right with me, that's not the way it's supposed to be done," he said.

Read the full transcript of his interview below.

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