The Department of Education plans to ask for an additional $58 million in the 2012 legislative session to keep school buses running, save adult education and cope with a growing student population.

The funding request for the 2012-13 school year was revealed last week as the department looks to get a handle on the effects of years of budget cuts — and in the wake of a report that Hawaii has had some of the deepest per-pupil funding reductions in the nation.

Board of Education members have raised concerns about the state of the department’s finances, pointing out during a recent meeting that the picture could worsen in the coming fiscal year as federal stimulus grants run out.

Wesley Lo, chairman of the BOE Finance and Infrastructure Committee, said Thursday that some DOE programs may have to weather more cuts or be eliminated altogether so that others can be preserved.

"We may be at the point of robbing Peter to pay Paul," Lo said. "Once you reach that tipping point, all of a sudden it’s real dramatic. It starts falling apart. I think we’re awfully close to that."

Lo also said the economic challenges are forcing frank discussions about the department’s priorities and how it can increase efficiency. "There needs to be time spent on coming up with a new strategy for delivering education," Lo said, adding, "You can’t keep trying to squeeze the turnip the way we’re doing."

In the 2009-2011 biennium alone, officials estimate the DOE budget was slashed by about $500 million through funding cuts, budget restrictions, a hiring freeze, reductions in nonlabor costs and other cost-saving measures. The dire budget situation in the 2009-10 school year was most notable for prompting 17 teacher furlough days, leaving Hawaii with the shortest school year in the nation and spurring anger and frustration in parents.

A recently released study from the Center for Budget Policy and Priorities, a nonpartisan Washington, D.C.-based think tank, concluded that Hawaii had the nation’s second-largest decrease in per-pupil spending from 2008 to 2011. With inflation factored in, it amounted to a $1,175 decrease in funding per student, according to the study’s authors, who analyzed data provided by states. The largest funding cut, $1,414 per pupil, was in California, the report said.

The average per-student funding in Hawaii was about $9,600 in the last school year.

State Sen. Jill Tokuda, chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee, said Thursday she is hopeful that the Legislature will be able to restore some funding to the DOE in the upcoming session, though she added it’s too early to say whether that will be possible. She said any funding request will be looked at "very closely."

"We’ve got a number of hard decisions in front of us," Tokuda said.

The department’s supplemental budget request includes:

» $42 million for student transportation, which would be added to about $28.5 million already appropriated for the program. The total price tag for bus service this fiscal year is about $74 million, up from $28 million in 2003.

The rising cost of bus service has drawn concern from lawmakers, who asked the department to present a report this winter on possible solutions for paring student transportation costs.

The department said the additional funding is needed to continue offering service to general-education students. Legislators appropriated $28.5 million for student transportation in the coming fiscal year — down from $49.3 million this fiscal year and $58.9 million in the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2011.

About 37,000 general-education public school students statewide ride school buses. Of those about half ride free because they come from disadvantaged families. An additional 4,000 special-education students also get free curb-to-curb transportation.

The DOE has in recent years increased bus fares, cut bus service in some areas and increased the distance between the schools and homes that school buses service. Randy Moore, assistant superintendent for facilities and support services, said the department is also considering other options, including extending the allowable service life of school buses.

» $2.5 million for adult education, which offers GED diploma, remedial education and English-as-a-second-language courses for thousands statewide. There is no money in the budget for adult education in the upcoming fiscal year. The department is spending about $5 million this fiscal year on adult education.

» An additional $13.6 million for the section of the budget called the "weighted student formula" — the main source of operating money for schools. The additional funding to the $740 million already appropriated is needed, the DOE said, because of enrollment increases. The number of students attending regular (noncharter) public schools increased 1.3 percent this school year, to 172,104.

The BOE will give final approval for the supplemental budget request at its meeting Tuesday, and will also take up the DOE’s request for $130 million for capital improvements projects. The largest funding request — $38.5 million — would go to "school building improvements." The money would be added to $61 million already appropriated for building improvements next fiscal year.

The department is also asking for an additional $5 million for high school science lab upgrades, to be added to $5 million already appropriated, and $8 million for electrical or infrastructure upgrades, to be added to $2 million.