Parents of some Hawai'i public school students yesterday praised Gov. Linda Lingle's plan to tap into the state's "rainy day" fund and end teacher furlough days from January through 2011.

"This is the rainy day," said Celia Molina, a mother of a first-grader at Kalei'opu'u Elementary School in Waipahu. "We wish that we didn't need to use it, but given the circumstances and the dire need, this is an appropriate use."

It's a position some parents said Lingle should have held before Hawai'i's estimated 189,783 students lost three instructional days — so far — to furloughs.

Allison Mikuni's daughter attends Kähala Elementary School, and Mikuni said she believes that "No one looked at furloughs from the long-term social costs and implication of not educating your future. They were only looking at the fiscal situation, as a dollar-and-cents issue. I appreciate the fact that the governor looked at what has happened and is making the changes as needed."

Lingle announced yesterday that she wants to end teacher furloughs starting in January by tapping into the state's rainy day fund and converting noninstructional days to classroom days.

Yesterday, students like Joe Crawford, a 17-year-old senior at Roosevelt High School, had mixed feelings.

The "furlough Fridays" gave Crawford time to catch up on projects and homework assignments.

"Furlough days are a good break from school, although I'm a senior who's about to graduate. I feel sometimes I need the class time," Crawford said. "It is helpful."

Aja Wakamoto, a 15-year-old sophomore at Farrington High School, could not disagree more.

Furlough Fridays are stressing her out.

Wakamoto takes an honors-level biology class, and to make up for the loss of instructional time, her teacher moves the class along at a faster pace than before, with more homework.

"The furloughs have made school a lot more difficult," Wakamoto said. "We've been getting double the work and less time during school. It's harder to learn."

The fourth furlough Friday of the school year is scheduled for this week, and parents have protested by lobbying state officials, signing petitions and staging protests at the state Capitol.

Finding a way to prevent the furloughs is "not happening soon enough," said Mish Kuklok, a mother of two students at Pearl Ridge Elementary School. "We'll have to wait for the Legislature to approve it, so it may not happen right away. Furloughs are hurting education."

Molina said the $50 million from the rainy day fund will help over the next two years, but parents need to remain involved in finding longer-term solutions.

"We need to find solutions so we won't be in the same situation two years from now," she said. "Hopefully it will include more of a parent focus and parent involvement in guiding our public education where it needs to be."

But furlough Fridays did have the unintended consequence of getting parents involved and motivating them to be part of the solution, Molina said.

"Furloughs," she said, "have strengthened the parent network."