Report Title:

Model United Nations Program; Approp.

 

Description:

Appropriates funds for a Model United Nations program for high school students.

 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

1028

TWENTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2001

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

Making an appropriation for a model United Nations program for high school students.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that the United Nations serves as a positive role model to Hawaii's youth in finding diplomatic solutions to world problems. As tensions increase in the Middle East and other areas around the world, together with the increasing number of countries possessing nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction, the United Nations offers a unifying and creative way to bring about peaceful solutions to seemingly intractable problems. The legislature finds that there is a need for a permanent program for students to be able to study that institution in order to learn about diplomacy and creative solutions in resolving local, national, and international problems.

The legislature finds that in 1998, the Hawaii Island Chapter of the United Nations Association/USA sponsored a high school Model United Nations for three high schools on the Island of Hawaii. This program was so enthusiastically embraced by the students who participated that this organization expanded the program to seven schools in 1999 and to ten schools in 2000. This effort was made possible through the cooperation of the political science department and student Model United Nations organization, "Hui Na Lahui Huipo", of the University of Hawaii at Hilo, under the direction of Dr. Philip Taylor.

This program has been so successful in teaching students about world problems and the United Nations' efforts to maintain peace, subjects not adequately covered in the public school curriculum, that the legislature finds that it should be expanded to include all high schools in the State.

SECTION 2. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $50,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2001-2002, to expand the Model United Nations program initially to all high schools on the Island of Hawaii and subsequently to high schools in the State, including the hiring of a Model United Nations coordinator in the school district of Hawaii to organize the program and work with a community-based organization to supplement the funds necessary for the program.

SECTION 3. The sum appropriated shall be expended by the department of education for the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2001.

INTRODUCED BY:

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