HI’s governor, BOE in standoff over cost of random drug testing program for teacher
Education Week reports that Gov. Linda Lingle and the Hawaii State Department of Education (HDE) are battling over who will pay the costs of conducting mandatory, random drug testing of the state’s teachers. Last year, the Hawaii State Teachers Association’s agreed to the testing provision in its collective bargaining agreement. The governor argues HDE should foot the bill and has enough money in its $2.3 billion budget to do so. Hawaii Board of Education (HBOE) has so far refused to approve funding for the program, countering it would require taking money away from the classroom. Russell Pang, a spokesman for Gov. Lingle, argues covering the cost would be even easier if HDE officials dropped their plan to test 25% percent of all teachers, which would cost an estimated $500,000, and instead adopted a scaled-down proposal that would test only 1% percent of the state’s 12,000 teachers each year, which would only cost $4,200.
Meanwhile, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and a group of roughly 200 Hawaii teachers have vowed to challenge the program in court, if it ever begins. “If drug testing of teachers goes forward, we are ready to file suit,” said Graham Boyd, the director of the ACLU’s Drug Law Reform Project. Even though the 13,000-member Hawaii State Teachers Association (HSTA), an affiliate of the National Education Association, ratified the contract containing the drug-testing provision, HSTA officials claim its members felt forced to agree to the controversial program because it was tied to an 11% salary increase. Despite the holdup over paying for the program, HSTA and HDE are trying to work out the details of implementation, as was stipulated in the contract. “We are hoping to get it done real soon,” said Roger Takabayashi, the president of the HSTA. “The teachers did ratify it, and we are working in good faith.” Case law on drug tests for teachers is mixed. In 1998, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, in New Orleans, struck down a drug-testing program involving teachers, while the 6th Circuit federal appeals court, in Cincinnati, upheld a different program that year. Even though the ACLU is holding off on any action until the funding dispute is resolved, it has not stayed out of the situation completely. In February, Vanessa Chong, the executive director of the ACLU of Hawaii, joined by legal experts and a group of Hawaii teachers, sent a letter to the governor about what was perceived as a threat to withhold a portion of the teachers’ raises if the drug-testing program didn’t begin.
Source: Education Week, 7/21/08, By Linda Jacobson
[Editor’s Note: Between the impasse over who is paying for the testing and the ACLU threat to mount a legal challenge to the program, it appears that Hawaii’s mandatory, random drug testing program for teachers faces a uphill battle. For additional background on the dispute, see below.]
NSBA School Law pages on Hawaii’s teacher drug testing dispute