Last school year (‘24-’25), the requirements for Hawai’i public school students who want a free EXPRESS Holo Card changed. Students must live at least 1.5 miles away from school and attend the school in their original school district to be eligible. According to a survey done by Pinion staff last year, 70% of students were unable to get a free Holo Card that year or were unsure about the rules. Subsequently, a surcharge on TheBus cash fares has been proposed, which according to a survey this year, has upset students at McKinley, as the change in requirements have led some students to have to pay for bus fares on their own, and the potential surcharge will add onto that.
Prior to the ‘22-’23 school year, only students who met the Hawai’i Administrative Rule 8-27 were given free Holo Cards. The Expanding Ridership to Educate Students in Schools (EXPRESS) program was founded in the ‘22-’23 school year by the HIDOE to address the school bus driver shortage, providing all high school students with a free TheBus Holo Card to use as their mode of transportation to school during the ‘22-’23 and ‘23-’24 school year, which changed during the ‘24-’25 school year. As of July 2025, the City and County of Honolulu proposed a twenty-five cent surcharge for cash fares in order to encourage Holo Card usage in hopes of a more efficient fare collection and reducing costs for operating the cash collection process. If implemented, the price of a single cash fare will be $3.25 for adults and $1.75 for youth.
Daniil Shirinov (c/o ‘29) lives less than 1.5 miles away from school and uses TheBus almost every day to get to school as it is convenient, especially when it rains, and saves him time. Shirinov uses a Holo Card and feels that bus fares should be free or cheaper for students as he said even a small increase can add up over time.
“ … increasing bus fares would make it harder for students and families that depend on it every day,” Shirinov said. “I also think public transportation should stay affordable so everyone should have access.”
Thomas Favors, an English teacher for the Business Academy, rides TheBus to school himself every day using a monthly pass on his Holo Card. Favors said he thinks the requirements for the EXPRESS Holo Card are pretty reasonable, but understands that students who are not inside the district might have a problem.
Favors said he thinks the surcharge on cash fares would not affect him or too many other people, as he imagines that people who use TheBus often would have a Holo Card. At the same time, he questions the lack of service improvements and occasional technical issues with the Holo Card website where they cannot load money and would have to use cash.
“I feel like they’re taking advantage of people who don’t use their services that often. And when you get to my age, you start thinking, if you’re going to raise your prices, you better do something to make it worth that,” Favors said. “Nothing has really improved. That’s a concern that I do have.”
Jerushah Freyr Calalang (c/o ‘29) is a Geographic Exception (GE) student and commutes to school via TheBus almost every day, as she does not have convenient transportation yet and has tennis matches and practices on weekends. Calalang pays with cash and feels that all students should be able to apply for an EXPRESS Holo Card, especially GE students as they live farther away, noting how it could be more expensive for athletes.
“ … If you’re an athlete, you have to go back to school and go home … even at weekends. So that’s like, at least $21.00 every single week … that might be a little expensive for some people, even me,” Calalang said.
