STAND. COM. REP. NO.1061

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2001

RE: S.B. No. 1212

S.D. 1

H.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2001

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Education, to which was referred S.B. No. 1212, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO EDUCATION,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to transfer the duty of licensing public school teachers from the Department of Education to the Hawaii Teacher Standards Board.

The Office of the Lieutenant Governor, HSTA, Hawaii Association of Independent Schools, Dean of the College of Education at the University of Hawaii, Hawaii Business Roundtable, Hawaii Teacher Standards Board, and the Department of Education testified in support of the measure.

Your Committee recognizes that this measure would remove the inherent conflict of interest the department currently faces as employer and licensor.

Your Committee has amended this measure to incorporate the following specific recommendations:

(1) Provide data that can allow for identifying possible patterns or trends in the types of students who tend to be assigned to out-of-field teachers;

(2) Provide that there will be monthly updates of changes in employee status and hiring;

(3) Provide that no individual may be employed by the department on an emergency basis for more than four years;

(4) Provide that no person shall be issued a license or teach on an emergency basis in the public schools without having first paid the fees established by the board in accordance with chapter 91;

(5) After July 2002, replace references to "credentials" and "credentialing" with "permits" and "permitting" in several sections of the education law; and

(6) Make further nonsubstantive technical changes for purposes of clarity.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Education that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1212, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1212, S.D. 1, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Finance.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Education,

____________________________

KEN ITO, Chair