There’s some dispute among teachers about whether the salary cuts dealt to HGEA workers and teachers are equal.

HGEA workers face a 5 percent wage cut and nine days paid leave. Teachers a 1.5 percent pay cut and leave without pay on certain non-instructional days. But Superintendent Kathryn Matayoshi won’t say how many days of unpaid leave teachers will have to take.

“Nice try, but I cannot talk about it,” she told Civil Beat on Tuesday.

Board of Education Chairman Don Horner said much the same: “I have no statement to make about the teachers contract.”

If you impose working conditions, aren’t you required to tell your employees what those conditions are?

It would seem reasonable. And doubly true for public employees, whose salaries we’re all paying.

Last we checked, Matayoshi is effectively the CEO of a department that employs 20,000 public workers. Horner is the chairman of the board of that same public agency.

What is it about “public” that they don’t understand?

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