Committees schedule and pass measure authorizing high-school diplomas for veterans with interrupted schooling

A joint committee hearing convened to schedule and consider Senate Bill 422, which would authorize the Department of Education to award a high school diploma to persons whose secondary education was interrupted by compulsory or voluntary induction into U.S. armed services or by wartime internment during World War II, the Korean War or the Vietnam War. The bill was discussed in a joint session of the Committee on Education and the Committee on Public Safety and Military Affairs; the Department of Education’s superintendent (Keith Hayashi) offered testimony in support and referred to prior statutory authority under Act 101 (Session Laws of Hawaii 2007), which had authorized similar diplomas with a sunset in 2020.

The Education committee recommended passage as is. Committee roll-call discussion shows the chair and vice chair voting aye and other members recorded present; the committee’s recommendation was adopted. The Committee on Public Safety and Military Affairs recorded a similar recommendation to pass unamended.

Votes and outcome: The committee on Education recorded a recommendation to pass SB422 as is and the vote was adopted. The public record for the joint hearing shows endorsement by the participating committees.

Why this matters: The bill restores or reauthorizes a mechanism for awarding diplomas to persons whose schooling was interrupted because of military service or wartime measures. The Department of Education cited Act 101 (2007) as a prior temporary authorization that expired in 2020.