A grassroots organization has asked the governor's office to release all correspondence relating to public school furloughs because the group believes there is money available to end the furloughs.

Save Our Schools filed the request under the Uniform Information Practices Act yesterday and is seeking e-mails, notes, reports, phone messages and other information on the furloughs. SOS said it has obtained a letter from the U.S. Department of Education saying the state was given more than $140 million in stimulus funds that could be used to pay teacher salaries and end the furloughs.

The group said it also believes that $27.5 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds are available and could be used to get students back to classs.

Russell Pang, spokesman for Gov. Linda Lingle, said the governor's office received the SOS request and is processing it. He declined further comment.