HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - The teachers union is fighting to get pay raises for thousands of public school educators.

The Hawaii State Teachers Association (HSTA) says they were denied the money because the Hawaii State Department of Education (HIDOE) said they didn’t have enough experience here in Hawaii.

Before coming to Hawaii, David Reid had nine years of teaching on the continental U.S.

The HIDOE had credited six of those years in the classroom, but it was not enough to get him a raise that other teachers with more experience in Hawaii received.

“It was very at first confusing and then upsetting because you know no one wants to work really hard to go broke, and teachers all work very hard and our value to the workplace is years of experience and education and to have your value just erased,” Reid said.

Reid and two other teachers went to the Hawaii Labor Relations Board after being excluded from the HIDOE’s salary increase in 2022.

Known as the compression fix, the repricing boosted pay for 72% of teachers by an average of $6,000.

“When they passed out raises, they said I didn’t have 11, because I’d been here five years at that point,” Reid said.

The board sided with Reid, saying that the years of experience teaching that he and the other two teachers had on the mainland must be considered in the repricing.

The HIDOE appealed the ruling, but a state judge affirmed it last month.

“I’ve described it as the most frustrating thing I’ve ever done in my life. So to come out on the other side and be successful feels really good,” Reid said.

After the decision, Reid’s pay was increased by $3,700 a year.

“Considering the cost of living in Hawaii, that’s not nothing,” Reid said.

The ruling came as the islands grapple with an ongoing teacher shortage. Hawaii ranks in the top 10 states with the lowest teacher to state population.

There are more than 2,000 other teachers like Reid who were not compensated for non-HIDOE teaching experience.

The HSTA is asking the HIDOE to raise their pay as well.

“Hopefully this could apply to everybody,” Reid said.

The HSTA is still waiting on the official written ruling from the court.

We reached out to the department and are waiting to hear back.

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Hawaii’s Legislature may want to consider offering new state tax-credit funding for renewable energy expansion to at least partially offset federal withdrawals.

That was a suggestion made to a pair of state Senate committee chairs during a briefing last week about negative impacts on Hawaii climate change mitigation initiatives due to recent federal policy changes and funding pullbacks.

Leah Laramee, coordinator of the Hawai‘i Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Commission, told Sens. Karl Rhoads and Mike Gabbard at the Nov. 3 briefing that it would be incredibly helpful if more local tax credits were made available for renewable energy and climate change impact mitigation projects in the face of federal cutbacks driven by the administration of President Donald Trump.

Laramee told the senators that about $651 million in Hawaii renewable energy projects are at risk due to federal policy and funding changes.

“It’s a significant investment that is threatened in the state,” she said. “The loss of these projects is going to have pretty significant impacts on our ability to produce affordable energy locally and impact our energy security.”

In recent weeks, the administration of Gov. Josh Green has rolled out state emergency funding programs to help low-income households in Hawaii pay for rent, utilities and food to counteract federal program cuts due to the government shutdown. Most recently, the state Department of Transportation offered to pay federal air traffic and security workers to avoid curtailing flights at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu by 10%.

Though the loss of federal financial support for renewable energy isn’t on par with shutdown-related emergency responses, Hawaii residents and businesses pay the highest electricity rates in the nation. The threat of rising sea levels on the local economy also makes climate change impact mitigation a high priority for state leaders.

Some of the $651 million in threatened Hawaii renewable energy projects cannot be offset by state funding, such as a planned offshore wind farm where federal officials have ceased regulatory approval action. But state funding could counter canceled federal support for other things including electric vehicles, rooftop solar systems and “carbon smart” food production.

Laramee told Rhoads and Gabbard, who respectively chair the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Committee on Agriculture and Environment, that one of the biggest federal grant losses for Hawaii was $249 million from a $3 billion nationwide U.S. Department of Agriculture program called Carbon Smart Commodities.

The program supported climate-friendly agricultural projects including development of food forests, invasive species management and soil health improvement.

“This is really about food security within the state, and that’s been rescinded,” Laramee said.

Another move earlier this year rescinded a $62.5 million federal grant used to make low-cost loans for low- and moderate-income households to pay for rooftop solar systems.

This Solar for All program was being operated by the Hawai‘i Green Infrastructure Authority, but was terminated in August by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Hawaii along with nearly two dozen other states filed lawsuits in October challenging EPA’s rescission of grant funding approved by Congress. Laramee said she was optimistic that the state will prevail, and encouraged the Legislature to keep up support for the state Office of the Attorney General, which is involved in numerous lawsuits over federal policy and funding changes.

Laramee also suggested that loan repayment revenue received by the Green Infrastructure Authority be recycled to fund more loans instead of being deposited into the state’s general fund.

The briefing held by Rhoads and Gabbard also covered ongoing efforts to invest in plans and projects that make Hawaii more resilient to rising sea level and temperatures — efforts that include pending litigation by the City and County of Honolulu against major oil companies that the Trump Administration has tried to upend.

Retired Hawaii Supreme Court justice Michael Wilson urged state leaders to develop a climate protection plan for the islands. Such a plan, he told Rhoads and Gabbard, could start with guarding against the loss of Waikiki Beach, which Wilson said stands to be submerged in 40 or 50 years based on the present rate of global warming impacts and would sap $2 billion of annual visitor spending.

After the briefing, Rhoads (D, Nuuanu-Downtown-Iwilei) said in a statement that the presentations by Laramee and Wilson were a sobering reminder that climate change isn’t a distant or abstract issue, and that it directly impacts the health, safety, and economic future of Hawaii residents.

“Our responsibility as lawmakers is to take proactive measures to protect our communities and uphold the rights of future generations to a safe and sustainable environment,” Rhoads said.

Gabbard (D, Kapolei-­Makakilo-Kalaeloa) said in a statement that now is the time to “double down” on the commitment by Hawaii leaders to renewable energy, local food security and climate adaptation to safeguard our islands.

“The loss of federal funding for clean energy projects threatens much needed years of progress toward a more sustainable future,” he said.

The next session of the Legislature is scheduled to convene Jan. 21.

The University of Hawaiʻi is a key partner in the new Central Oʻahu Agriculture and Food Hub that broke ground in Wahiawā on November 14. Led by the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT) and the Agribusiness Development Corporation (ADC), the project brings together the UH Mānoa College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resilience (CTAHR) and the UH Community College System with other state agencies.

“The food hub is an important step on the path to Hawaiʻi’s food self-sufficiency and we are honored to contribute,” said CTAHR Dean Parwinder Grewal. “It will be helping farmers and entrepreneurs manufacture their innovative food products from local fruits, vegetables, and proteins.”

The Whitmore Village complex will serve as an innovation base to provide manufacturing and industry services at a commercial scale, boost local food sustainability, and enable local entrepreneurs to export globally.

“From Kona to Kekaha, and Hilo to Hāna, the Food and Product Innovation Network can strengthen Hawaiʻi’s local food systems and economy for generations to come,” said Senate Ways and Means Chair Donovan Dela Cruz.

Other partners in the complex include the Hawaiʻi Department of Education (HIDOE) and the Department of Law Enforcement.

As part of the complex in Whitmore Village, HIDOE is constructing a Central Oʻahu Regional Kitchen on ADC–owned land. The facility will serve as a statewide model for regional hubs that connect local farms to school cafeterias as part of the state’s farm–to–school initiative.

First Lady Jaime Kanani Green noted how the Central Oʻahu Agriculture and Food Hub and HIDOE kitchen concepts will provide healthy affordable meals to all public school students.