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Lawmakers look to expand preschools, tackle teacher shortages this year

FILE - Instructional materials are posted on a wall of a kindergarten class. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson, File)
Julia Nikhinson/AP
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FR171888 AP
FILE - Instructional materials are posted on a wall of a kindergarten class. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson, File)

Expanding preschools, tackling teacher shortages, and banning cell phones in the classroom are some of the priorities on lawmakers' to-do lists.

Rep. Justin Woodson chairs the House Education Committee. He said some measures are still in the drafting phase.

One proposal would ask the state Board of Education to create a policy on restricting cell phones for public school students.

“There has been a lot of emotional response,” Woodson said. “Some people love the idea. Some people absolutely hate the idea. But my feeling is that we need to have a formal discussion as to whether or not it's the right direction to go as a state."

So far, 19 states have statewide or local school district laws that either ban or restrict students from using their cell phones in class.

Woodson said other states have seen increases in test scores, a decrease in bullying and more. Lawmakers are also looking at expanding preschools statewide.

Efforts to expand public preschools are in the governor’s budget request. The Executive Office of Early Learning is asking for more than $8 million which would fund up to 50 pre-K classrooms for the next two years.

EOEL Director Yuuko Arikawa-Cross said the office is always asking for $800,000 for their family-child interaction learning programs.

“That would be to support four new programs who could offer this multigenerational, cultural, responsive approach,” she said.

The state has long grappled with a chronic teacher shortage. Last year, the U.S. Department of Education awarded the state a nearly $5 million grant to create a teacher apprenticeship program.

Woodson said the details are still being worked out and that this program would address recruitment and retention.

“There will be a proposal to help potentially articulate some of the components to make that process smoother, and that will probably be introduced as a governor's bill, and the committee will be wholeheartedly supporting that effort,” he said.

Another proposal would tackle the school bus driver shortage. At the beginning of the 2024-2025 school year, the state Department of Education canceled over 100 bus routes. That led the governor's office to issue an emergency proclamation. It loosened the rules on the types of vehicles the DOE can use to transport students to restore some routes.

Rep. Trish La Chica is the vice chair of the House Education Committee. She's reintroducing a bill that would make that exemption permanent.

“What this bill would do with it would give the [state] Department of Transportation the authority to grant DOE and public charter schools the exemptions for in cases, when they are experiencing a crisis, to use vehicles such as, motor coaches, minibuses, vans, other vehicles to be able to transport students," she said.

The legislative session begins this Wednesday.

Cassie Ordonio is the culture and arts reporter for Hawaiʻi Public Radio. Contact her at cordonio@hawaiipublicradio.org.
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