“‘Tenure’ has become one of those red-flag words, kind of like ‘merit pay,’” former teachers union executive director Joan Husted told me after today’s hearing on a legislative proposal to reform teacher tenure.

Its summary says the bill would “eliminate the vesting of tenure for certain employees of the Department of Education.”

Those are fighting words, if you talk to almost any teacher. Which is why the hearing today took place before a packed house. Teachers, union representatives, former union representatives, school district officials and community members had all turned out to say their piece about it — some in support of the measure, but most in opposition.

But House Education Chairman Roy Takumi, who introduced the proposal, defused some of the anger with his announcement that the bill isn’t intended to actually do what it purports.

“The intent of the committee is to not pass this bill out, but to look at how we can modify the tenure system to better reflect the needs of students in the schools,” he said before testimony began.

“The goal of the bill is not to end tenure, but to develop a new tenure system that better reflects some of the challenges, and at the end of the session we’ll see what we have. If you want to oppose the killing of tenure, you can anyway, but that’s not what we’re trying to do.”

Hawaii State Teachers Association President Wil Okabe testified against the proposal as it stands now, but appeared open to discussing ways to improve the existing tenure process.

“I believe one of the ways we can do it is to help the teachers get to that point of tenure through professional development and mentoring,” he told Takumi. Extending the probationary period might even give some teachers a better chance at making it in the profession long term.

Husted said after the hearing, “I have no idea what (Takumi)’s talking about,” adding that state law already allows a principal to extend the length of time a teacher is on probation, if necessary.

Beyond extending the probationary time for teachers, or eliminating tenure altogether, Husted said she’s not sure how tenure can be “reformed.”

Other red-flag terms in education, according to Husted, are “evaluation” and “merit pay,” which is now called “performance-based pay.”