Hawaii State Furlough Editorial- A Student’s Take

Seventeen days. Seventeen. It could represent many things, seventeen elephants, seventeen donkeys, seventeen lollipops, or even seventeen chocolate chip cookies (yumm). But, in Hawaii seventeen seems to represent something greater. Something that many people are passionate about. Seventeen furlough days. Seventeen days of no public school education. Seventeen days lost. We’ve gone through two furloughs day so far, and already, there are efforts to put an end to those days. I however, as a student, do not think that it impacts us as much as some claim these days actually do. I have no problem with these furloughs (and that’s not because I just don’t want to go to school). I do believe that it matters whether or not our students are prepared and willing to learn. In fact, they are necessary for our state.

Let’s look at some background first, in order to put all this into context (oh so important context). On October 23, 2009, the first of these furloughs began. No longer is it “Aloha Friday,” it is now “Furlough Friday.” Hawaii’s public school teachers and 170,000 students were forced to take seventeen fridays off throughout the whole year. This has given Hawaii students the shortest school year in the nation. All of this, because of a nearly 1 billion dollar budget deficit in our state. In an attempt to patch up the leaky faucet, a 7.9% pay cut and these furlough days was proposed by the governor. It was ratified by teachers. This has ignited a flurry of protest from concerned parents, teachers, and even students. But, the fact is, that it as necessary. Everyone has been hit hard by the recession. Everyone from regular families such as mine to the big monolithic, overbearing government. Not doing these furloughs would have pulled our state further into the pit.

Along with these protest, there have a been a number of proposed alternatives to these furloughs. There have been ideas to take funds from other areas, to extended school hours, and taking less waiver or planning and collaboration days (which is probably an excellent idea seeing as we have a ton of these). There have even been lawsuits filed against furloughs. Quite hilariously, in a discussion in class about furloughs, our ultra left-wing teacher (pardon me for saying that) suggested to the class that the government should’ve “taken away money from the garbage men.” And being the amazing brain-washer that he is, the whole class agreed. That’s accounted for by our gullibility, I would guess. But, on the more serious side, I do firmly believe if the public outcry is loud enough and a feasible solution was proposed, these furloughs will go away. However, somewhere else is going to have to take the hit eventually.