Parents upset over Furlough Fridays celebrated two years ago when Hawaii lawmakers established a minimum number of days and hours that students needed to have “instructional time.”

Then a teacher wrote earlier this week on Civil Beat that students are being pulled out of class to work in the cafeteria. He was appalled that this work was detracting from instructional time, but commenters on his op-ed piece seemed to think the cafeteria work can be educational.

It’s time to have a conversation about what we mean by “instructional time” in Hawaii, writes parent and public school advocate Melanie Bailey in a column we published today.