Compromise is difficult, even under the friendliest circumstances. But when there's a virtual standoff — as there is in the dispute over drug testing of public school teachers — the difficult becomes impossible.

The stalemate is not on negotiating the ground rules for testing, or on the type of sampling and tests to be used; negotiations on this issue are proceeding well.

It's on who's going to foot the bills. And on that score, the Lingle administration and the Board of Education have reached an impasse.

There's been no movement for months, and the budget cutbacks legislated in the just-finished legislative session have dropped the temperature in this particular cold war a few more degrees.

June 30 is the date set in the teachers' contracts for the program to launch, under a memorandum of agreement struck last year. Since then, the administration has insisted that the DOE budget could squeeze out enough money to cover costs. It's hard to see how the governor could be so certain, since the costs won't be known until the test technology and procedures are set.

For its part, the board asserts its legal interpretation: The agreement merely gives the DOE, as employer, the option to conduct the drug tests but doesn't compel them. This view ignores the fact that agreement was used as a bargaining chip to secure raises for the teachers, who stand ready to implement the program.

Administration officials point to DOE budget categories with surpluses that they argue could be used; the school board counters that these are the same areas likely to feel the pinch because of the recent budget cuts.

In other words, both sides have gone to their respective corners and refuse to budge.

Surely there's room in the middle to meet and find the funds for the program. But so far, there's been a stubborn reluctance to give an inch, with very little communication between agencies.

This is what it means to be a public servant?

This kind of brinksmanship could lead to a legal dispute over how enforceable the agreement is, a clash that makes both sides look bad and serves the taxpayers not at all.

Good-faith discussions aimed at assembling the finances need to accelerate immediately.

About $2 billion is piped into the DOE annually. For that amount of money the public expects its government to get off the dime, settle this mess and move on to tackle other challenges in the education of our children.