STAND. COM. REP. NO. 342

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2023

RE: H.B. No. 743

H.D. 1

Honorable Scott K. Saiki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2023

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Education, to which was referred H.B. No. 743 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO EDUCATION,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to require the Department of Education to establish an electric school bus pilot program to provide certain complex areas with ownership and control of electric school buses.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from Ulupono Initiative and one individual. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Education.

Your Committee finds that there is currently a nationwide school bus driver shortage. This shortage is also felt locally, where only five hundred fifty out of seven hundred school bus driver positions are adequately filled. Bus routes have been cancelled, temporarily suspended, or consolidated because of the driver shortages. Although many efforts have been made to address the shortage of school bus drivers across the State, this issue is particularly difficult to solve because school bus transportation has been privatized.

Your Committee further finds that the lack of school bus routes forces parents to transport their children through alternative means, including using their own vehicles to bring their children to school. The rise in vehicles on the road also intensifies traffic and increases greenhouse gas emissions. Your Committee believes that investing in additional school buses that are fueled by electricity will provide the Department of Education control over the hiring of drivers for the electric school buses and reduce greenhouse gas emissions to meet statewide climate goals.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Changing its effective date to June 30, 3000; and

(2) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity, consistency, and style.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Education that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 743, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 743, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Finance.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Education,

____________________________

JUSTIN H. WOODSON, Chair