At the end of last year, Hawaii's funds were listed as "at risk" because of what the department of education termed as an unsatisfactory implementation of the program.
A team from Hawaii will travel to Washington D.C. this week to discuss the progress that's been made.
"We're very very confident that we have a child centered turn in our whole educational process and I'm very very hopeful that will be reflected in our race to the top activity as well," says Governor Neil Abercrombie.
We're looking at trying to compensate teachers as they should be. Obviously, it's never been anybody's intention to have to hold back on salaries and compensation. Economic necessity forced us into a situation for awhile where we had to get some labor savings in order to balance the budget, in order to obey the law," said Abercrombie.
Also under the agreement, there will be no random drug testing.
"It's not an issue for me. If someone commits crimes, they should be prosecuted according to the law, but I'm presuming, as I do with every civil servant, that every public employee, including myself, that we obey the law," Abercrombie said.
Federal officials warned last month that Hawaii was in jeopardy of losing federal funding. On Monday, the governor said that he is encouraged about this week's trip after his conversation with Duncan.
"From our conversation today, I feel very confident in saying that he's very pleased with the progress we've made, and I think we'll be going up to Washington as a team, whether its members of the HSTA, the DOE, or our administration," Abercrombie said.
HSTA has scheduled a ratification vote on January 19.
The governor said if everything goes well with the contract, he expects the union's pending litigation before the Hawaii Labor Relations Board to resolve itself.
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