If one were a cynic, you'd almost think that the folks involved in figuring out how the school system will contribute to our current budget crunch were playing us.

Consider:

• After the union, the DOE and the governor agreed to a plan for a series of instructional furlough days, no less than the U.S. Department of Education, in the person of Secretary Arne Duncan, came raining down on Hawaii saying there must be a better way.

• Nearly 100 schools have already asked for waivers to turn training days and other non-classroom time into instructional days, thus lessening the number of teaching days that children will have to stay home.

• At least one school, Liholiho Elementary in Kaimukí, has come up with a parent-driven program for "furlough Fridays" that offers a full day of crafts and other learning activities in place of the regular school day. There will be more.

To accomplish this, the parents and other supporters of the school had to thread their way through a maze of bureaucratic restrictions. They could not simply offer the same curriculum the teachers would have offered had they been formally on the scene. They had to worry about insurance, liability requirements and even the constrictions of the state ethics law.

That's a lot to ask of volunteers. And it is all stuff that is already handled by the regular system in the ordinary course of business. Would it not be easier simply to find a way to take the system already in place and make it work the way it is supposed to work?

Everyone agrees the state is short of money. And surely, the school system — along with everyone else — must take its share of the pain. But it is becoming increasingly clear that no one wants, or will accept, the solution provided by the people currently in charge.

This is the time for all interested parties, including the governor, the teachers' union, the Department of Education and the most affected — the parents — to convene and forge a more responsible solution to the mess that has been created. What we have now is an ad hoc response to an intolerable solution.

Imagine if all the parties threw aside their personal differences and individual political agendas and simply sat down in the spirit of working this out in a reasonable manner. There are bright people out there and creative solutions. Without bending too far in the direction of union rules, state laws governing work rights and so forth, surely a solution can be found.

After all, when push comes to shove, the schools are not there for the grownups. They are there for the kids. Let's keep that in mind.