Requires DOT to establish an engineering scholarship program for qualified students in Hawaii. Requires a scholarship recipient to graduate and work for DOT the same number of years as the recipient received a scholarship. Appropriates $100,000 from the special fund of the general administration of the DOT.

A BILL FOR AN ACT

SECTION 1. The purpose of this Act is to establish a civil engineering scholarship program, to be administered by the department of transportation, to appropriate moneys to promote the civil engineering profession and to offer financial assistance, on-the-job training, and employment opportunities to qualified students in Hawaii.

SECTION 2. Chapter 26, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new section to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:

"§26-    Department of transportation; civil engineering scholarship program. (a) The department of transportation shall establish a civil engineering scholarship program open to high school graduates of accredited high schools in Hawaii, or high school graduates who are residents of Hawaii, who have successfully completed a high school pre-college curriculum. The department of transportation shall establish, without regard to chapter 91, the criteria and guidelines for the scholarship program that shall include but not be limited to the qualification requirements, conditions for awarding a scholarship, reimbursement provisions, and alternate options under which a scholarship participant may participate in order to otherwise fulfill an employment obligation under a scholarship agreement, if the participant is not hired by the department of transportation.

(b) The amount of the tuition component of a civil engineering scholarship award shall be limited to the resident tuition cost of the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

(c) Students awarded scholarships shall agree by contract, with the written approval of a parent or guardian when the applicant is under eighteen years of age, to apply for full-time civil service employment with the department of transportation immediately after graduation from an accredited civil engineering program at the University of Hawaii and, if hired, complete one year of full-time employment with the department of transportation for each school year in the scholarship program. A participant who fails to:

(d) A participant who leaves the department of transportation before completing the required number of years of employment shall reimburse the department of transportation the full amount of scholarship moneys received by the participant for each year a scholarship is received corresponding to each year for which the participant fails to complete the employment requirement.

(e) Summer employment may be offered by the department of transportation to scholarship students. The department of transportation shall establish guidelines to carry out this subsection.

(f) The department of transportation's guidelines for this program shall address situations where participants may wish to postpone their work commitment to pursue a masters degree in civil engineering."

SECTION 3. There is appropriated out of the special fund of the general administration of the department of transportation (TEN 995) the sum of $100,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2006-2007, to implement the department of transportation's engineering scholarship program.

The sum appropriated shall be expended by the department of transportation, highways division, for the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 4. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 5. This Act shall take effect upon its approval, except that section 3 shall take effect on July 1, 2006.