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Joan Husted, Executive Director of the Hawaii State Teachers Association, Rod McPhee, retired president of Punahou School, and John Dolly, former Dean of Education at the University of Hawaii, joined host Randall Roth to discuss Hawaii's public school system, with particular attention to the role of the teachers' union. McPhee argued that unions exist primarily to protect their members rather than their clients, and cited a contract provision barring teachers from supervising school bathrooms as evidence that pupil safety was subordinated to member convenience. He also noted that Honolulu public school teachers enroll their children in private schools at four times the national rate—a sign, he said, of diminished confidence in the public system. Husted countered that the HSTA actively advocates for children and public school funding, and that the high private-school enrollment reflects Hawaii's cultural bias toward private education, inadequate facilities, and teachers' religious values. Dolly found merit in both arguments: the union had been among the few groups lobbying on behalf of children, yet some contract provisions were self-destructive. The standing question is whether the union's collective bargaining agreements, in protecting teachers, have come at measurable cost to students.
Transcript
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Companion newspaper commentaries
Commentaries by the guests, published in The Honolulu Advertiser around the broadcast.
