Lawmakers approve $2,200 one-time teacher payments

State lawmakers approved a bill Thursday that would give Hawaii public school educators one-time $2,200 payments for the purpose of “workforce stabilization to retain teachers” while setting aside stimulus funds to assure shortage differentials continue next school year and more classrooms receive air conditioning.

In HB613, CD2, lawmakers direct the Hawaii State Department of Education to spend federal pandemic relief funds on specific programs, policies, and projects. The state House and Senate passed the proposal in a final vote Thursday morning.

The bill appropriates $29.7 million in federal COVID-19 stimulus funds for the fiscal year that starts July 1 “for the purpose of educator workforce stabilization to retain teachers; provided that moneys appropriated shall be used for a one-time stabilization payment of $2,200 for each teacher.” The payments will be made to full- and half-time teachers.

Once these funds are approved and released by the governor, HSTA will provide further information on the details about how and when the payments will be carried out.

The bill also provides $110 million to address school-level needs for safe reopening, such as improved indoor air quality and new air conditioning, along with food services, transportation, and personal protective equipment.

State Sen. Michelle Kidani, chair of the Senate Education Committee, said, “Our families, students, and schools cannot wait much longer to find out how these emergency funds are going to be used. Our schools need to know what resources they will have at their disposal to plan how they will reopen their schools.”

State Rep. Justin Woodson, chair of the House Education Committee, said, “The availability of federal funds announced in March 2021 have allowed us to begin addressing long standing issues within our public school system, such as our lack of adequately cooled classrooms.”

“I also want to give a special mahalo to members of our congressional delegation who are also responsible for bringing this to fruition,” Woodson said.

“No teacher or student should have to languish in classrooms that are 85 degrees or higher, and we know there have been instances where our classrooms breached 100 degrees. We are excited to address this by providing funding for air conditioners fitted with HEPA filters to the DOE classrooms currently without air conditioning. I am also pleased that we are able to provide our teachers with a well-deserved $2,200 bonus. We greatly value all that our teachers do for our students,” Woodson added.

Other major facets of the bill include the following funding for the 2021–22 fiscal year:

• $100 million to be spent by complex area superintendents for school-level programming, including but not limited to programs for social, emotional, mental, and physical health service needs, and to foster innovation projects for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), career and technical education, Hawaiian culture, sustainability, and trauma-informed care services.
• $76.2 million to address learning loss.
• $24.2 million for summer enrichment programs to address learning loss.
• $20 million for underserved student groups, including but not limited to students from low-income families, underserved student groups by gender, race, or ethnicity, English learners, children with disabilities, students experiencing homelessness, children and youth in foster care, migratory students, and other groups disproportionately impacted by the pandemic (e.g., youth involved in the criminal justice system and LGBTQ+ students).

HSTA thanks our legislators for ensuring that federal stimulus funding will continue to support the needs of our keiki during these dire economic times. In the meantime, we look to Gov. David Ige to sign this bill into law in the next two months. Since this funding was just approved, implementation details are unknown but we will update you as soon as we learn further details.

The legislation described above is separate and apart from the ongoing successor contract negotiations for the next HSTA contract. Our current contract expires June 30, and the HSTA Negotiations Team continues to work on reaching a settlement with the employer. Please check your Member Matters email, and we will continue to update you as negotiations progress.