HI HB1994

Establishes a network improvement community task force within the University of Hawaii to develop a K-12 STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) teacher education degree program, coordinated through the University of Hawaii Maui college campus.

Task force membership includes the chancellor of the University of Hawaii Maui college, the complex area superintendent for the Baldwin-Kekaulike-Maui complex area, the head master of Kamehameha Schools Maui, and the dean of the University of Hawaii Manoa college of education, with authority to add additional members.

Task force shall generate baseline data on current K-12 STEM teachers, engage in recruitment activities, create partnerships with high-need complex areas, and build retention pathways with emphasis on recruiting Native Hawaiian, Filipino, and other underrepresented minority teacher candidates.

Requires the task force to submit an interim report no later than twenty days before the 2021 legislative session and a final report no later than twenty days before the 2022 legislative session; task force dissolves on July 1, 2022.

Appropriates funds for fiscal year 2020-2021 to support the task force activities, including one full-time STEM entrepreneur-resident position at University of Hawaii Maui college, and for study abroad scholarships in the college's office of international and regional partnerships (estimated $37,500 for eighteen to twenty students).