Helping students repay loans for their career studies has helped attract more to enter health-care professions, in which there is a critical shortage across the islands. Now the state’s leaders hope education — another field with job positions languishing unfilled — could find a cure using the same medicine.

House Bill 1811 would create a new student loan repayment program to encourage the enrollment of new public school teachers, a scheme modeled after the Healthcare Education Loan Repayment Program (HELP).

A revised draft of the bill, which the House education and higher education committees moved out in February, is due for a hearing today before the House Finance Committee, starting at 2 p.m. in conference room 308 and by videoconference.

The first hearing resulted in an increase in the amount that a Hawaii public school teacher could receive after the first five consecutive years of teaching: $25,000 maximum. The original bill had participants eligible for two steps of payment, the first at up to $20,000 after five years, then a second of up to $25,000 after two more years of service.

The reductions in both the total grant amount and the terms of service seem to form a realistic starting point for the program, certainly given the fiscal uncertainties that lawmakers are facing.

The bill’s changes also come at the recommendation of University of Hawaii officials who maintain that the shorter time requirement and the increase of what would be paid after five years likely could appeal to more potential education students.

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“Aligning the timing of benefits more closely with the period when educators face the greatest financial pressure could significantly strengthen the program’s value as both a recruitment and retention tool,” said Debora Halbert, UH vice president for academic strategy.

The state Department of Education also has expressed general support for the program, pointing out that it fills a gap left by federal initiatives currently available to newly credentialed teachers.

Teachers already may qualify for existing federal loan forgiveness programs, said Keith Hayashi, state superintendent of education.

“However, such programs have much more restrictive requirements, lower loan repayment amounts, and provide less certainty, given the current federal administration’s stance on funding education programs,” Hayashi added in written testimony filed with the education committees.

Something must be done about the persistent shortage of teachers, based on reports from the front lines. One Maui teacher told lawmakers that more than one-fourth of the staff at Kulanihako‘i High School are emergency hires on international J-1 visas. He rightly argued that this practice does little to ensure a stable learning environment for students.

Teacher shortages are not unique to Hawaii, of course. According to the nonprofit Learning Policy Institute, about 1 in 8 of all teaching positions nationally were either vacant or held by teachers not fully certified for their positions.

The cost of living in Hawaii, of course, makes the state’s teacher recruitment problem especially acute. The same financial disincentive to work in Hawaii is one factor diminishing the recruitment and retention potential for health-care providers; the problem is worse for teachers, even less prepared to pay for housing and other expenses.

The Legislature faces fiscal challenges this session, which may curb how much can be invested now in this student loan repayment fund. It would be smart, however, for leaders to start by passing HB 1811, bringing more teachers into the workforce to serve Hawaii’s education needs.