To paraphrase an expression usually applied to troubled marriages: Can these contract negotiations be saved? It certainly seems that the answer is no — which means the end result will be worse for state workers and for the public that they serve.

In the past few weeks, there's either been bad news or no news updating the status of public-employee contract negotiations — and in a recessionary economy, no news equals bad news.

The Hawaii State Teachers Association and the Lingle administration remain deadlocked over how to reduce the number of furlough days that ultimately cheat the students out of the classroom time they need.

This lack of progress is shameful because it probably will mean the current academic year is a lost cause. And that is classroom time that students — who will move on through the public-school system, for better or worse — will never get back.

What's equally disgraceful is the lack of progress on other labor fronts. The result will be worsening pain: Lost time makes the budget hole grow wider, and makes further layoffs all but inevitable.

The University of Hawai'i Professional Assembly, representing UH faculty, has cited an "evergreen" clause and argues that its current contract remains in effect until the union seeks change. UH administration officials won't comment on whether they will legally challenge that position. That option deserves serious consideration. Otherwise, the ultimate result will be deeper cuts to UH programs than might have been made with a negotiated compromise settlement.

Finally, United Public Workers' Unit 10, made up of public-safety workers who cannot strike, is due in the next few days to hear a preliminary decision on binding arbitration, with a final ruling due Dec. 28.

But the contract for the rest of the union is hung up for another reason: The counties won't sign on to a final offer the Lingle administration wants to make. Without their votes, no deal can be struck for even the state-employed UPW members.

The Lingle administration rightly argues that negotiating simultaneously for state and city labor contracts under the current system does not work well during an economic downturn. The counties, funded by property taxes, don't feel the economic pinch in the same contract cycle as does the state — excise tax revenues were the first to plummet in the recession. The proposal to switch to separate state-county labor talks deserves a full airing in the Legislature.

None of that will solve the current crisis, of course. Those empowered to find a compromise that makes the best of a bad situation have failed to do so. And in the next round of distributing pink slips — which will surely happen — it is they who must be held accountable.