Under a cloud of budget uncertainty, HSTA achieves legislative wins

The 2025 legislative session concluded on May 2, and the Hawaiʻi State Teachers Association wants to begin our report on this session by extending a sincere mahalo to our state legislators. Their willingness to advance several key pieces of legislation, which we’ll detail below, demonstrates a commendable commitment to our students and public education in Hawaiʻi, especially given the challenging circumstances.

This year’s session operated under a significant cloud of financial uncertainty with the likelihood of significant federal budget cuts, potentially harming our state budget by $1 billion or more. The current federal administration has proposed considerable reductions in funding for critical areas, including education. This national outlook understandably made our state lawmakers particularly cautious when considering any bills with an appropriation.

Despite this tough environment, we remained focused on advocating for your priorities. We are happy to report that, through persistent effort and your collective voice, we have achieved some very important wins for our members, students, and the future of public education in our state.

Here’s a look at what we accomplished together:

• More free school meals for our students (SB 1300): This is a fantastic victory! Starting in the 2025-2026 school year, thousands of students who qualify for reduced-price meals will now get them for free. And the following year (2026-2027), even more students will receive free school meals – specifically those whose families earn up to 300% of the federal poverty level (for a family of four, this equates to approximately $107,000 a year). This improvement will help many of our students concentrate better in school because they will no longer be hungry.
• Stronger legal protections for you (SB 336): This new law makes it clearer that the state has a duty to support educators like you if you face a civil lawsuit related to your job, as long as you were doing your work professionally and not acting with gross negligence. It also sets up clear steps for legal help.
• Exploring paid family leave (SCR 145): We successfully pushed for a working group to be created to look into how Hawaiʻi can offer paid family and medical leave for all employees. Importantly, HSTA will have a seat on that working group to represent your interests.
• Funding HSTA’s contract (HB 1031): The money needed to cover the raises (including Class VIII), adjusted shares of employer coverage for health premium increases, and other negotiated items in our Bargaining Unit 05 contract for the next two years (2025-2027) has been approved.
• Help with student transportation (HB 862): To help with the ongoing school bus driver shortage, this law will allow schools to use other safe vehicles, like motor coaches or vans, to get students to school, as long as the vehicles meet specific safety rules.
• Key investments in our public schools (HB 300 – state budget): Beyond these specific bills, the main state budget also included some very important funding for education:
  • $150 million for school maintenance: A much-needed boost to help fix and maintain our school buildings.
  • Expanding public pre-K: Lawmakers approved $13.2 million for 108 new positions to continue growing our public pre-kindergarten programs.
  • $4 million for the kaiapuni program: This funding will support 13 positions in our Hawaiian language immersion programs.

These bills are now headed to Gov. Josh Green’s desk. He has 45 days from the end of the session to decide whether to sign them into law or veto them. The resolution on paid family leave does not need gubernatorial approval.

HSTA also looks forward to collaborating with Rep. Chris Todd (D, Hilo, Keaukaha, Orchidlands Estate, Ainaloa, Hawaiian Acres, Fern Acres, portions of Kurtistown and Kea‘au) who has recently been named the new House Finance Committee chair. As we look ahead to a special legislative session later this year to address federal funding shortfalls, we are hopeful that some of the cuts to education can be supported with state funding in monies that have been reserved, but we are also cognizant that cuts to other programs like Medicaid and CHIP will also be of top concern to legislators.

Lastly, our efforts regarding pandemic hazard pay will absolutely continue. With this regular legislative session over, we will turn to other avenues to make our concerns heard and also expect to bring hazard pay bills to the Legislature once again next January. Should that and other behind-the-scenes efforts not be successful, then our demand for fair treatment in this area will most certainly be taken to the bargaining table in the spring of 2027 and perhaps even to the streets should an agreement not be reached. We will not be disrespected given our valuable contributions during the pandemic.

Please continue to send your pandemic stories as we persevere in making the case that our educators (who were working under conditions more hazardous than many others) deserve at minimum the same financial respect that other state and county workers have been afforded.