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.