Hawai’i

Abstract

Budgeting on a biennium basis, Hawai’i has two education budgets with appropriations of more than $2 billion for 2022–2023. A strong budget flush with COVID-19 relief funds and higher-than-expected tax revenues are funding priorities that include recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, meeting pre-pandemic shortfalls, and new advancing education initiatives. Hawai’i uses a weighted student formula with adjustments made at the beginning of each biennium. Weight increases for English learners and homeless students are recent changes to the funding formula. Charter schools serve as one alternative to traditional public schools and students in charter schools receive equalized student funding. Hawai’i is unique among the states because it has a single school system for the entire state and a single university system. The University of Hawai’i system budget is about 6% of the state education budget and P-12 schools, including libraries and charter schools, are about 21% of the state’s budget. One of the most challenging school finance issues facing Hawai’i’s leaders is how to use the excess funds in the current budget to have the maximum impact on schools in a manner that is sustainable in the future.