School-related bills signed into law
By Lynda Arakawa
Advertiser Capitol Bureau
Bills designed to improve public education, and address school repairs and maintenance needs became law yesterday during a public bill signing.
Among the bills Gov. Ben Cayetano signed yesterday is a measure establishing a Hawai'i School-Level Minor Repairs and Maintenance Special Fund into which taxpayers may designate $2 of their state income tax refund. The bill allows the Department of Education to give each school up to $25,000 from that special fund as well as up to $25,000 from a state general fund account for any minor repairs, removing layers of bureaucracy for smaller jobs.
Cayetano also signed bills that provide a tax credit for certain professionals who do in-kind services for school repairs and maintenance, as well as exempt certain projects that cost less than $100,000 from the procurement code.
The repair and maintenance backlog for Hawai'i's public schools is more than $600 million. Education officials, lawmakers and others have talked about classrooms and other public school facilities plagued with broken furniture, peeling paint and aging amenities. The state budget bill, which Cayetano already signed, allocates an additional $60 million over two years for school repairs and maintenance.
Cayetano also signed bills intended to improve teaching, such as a measure to appropriate $500,000 for grants to schools to establish professional development schools. He also signed a bill that appropriates $190,000 to help candidates for the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards certification with release days, training materials and, if necessary, transportation expenses.
Under the latest teacher contract, teachers who earn such certification are eligible for a $5,000 annual pay differential.
Other education bills signed into law provide a loan program for education students who agree to teach in Hawaii's public school system, allow retired teachers to be rehired to teach in shortage areas while still receiving retirement benefits, and increase public school coaches' pay.
