STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1274

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2005

RE: H.B. No. 841

S.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Education and Military Affairs and Labor, to which was referred H.B. No. 841 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO EDUCATION,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to repeal the school-to-work executive council, as the program's key initiatives have been established under other public and private entities.

Your Committees find that the smooth implementation of Act 51, Session Laws of Hawaii 2004, would be greatly facilitated by enhanced access to information technology by the Department of Education, as well as by the additional personnel and training related to such an initiative. These provisions were contained in S.B. 1661, S.D. 2.

Your Committees further find that fostering civic responsibility is one of the important functions of public education. This objective would be greatly aided by the establishment of a competitive grant program designed to encourage the creation of effective educational materials on this topic. There is also a need to enhance science education by providing additional funding for science textbooks. This would complement the appropriations for mathematics textbooks that was contained in Act 51, Session Laws of Hawaii 2004. These provisions were contained in S.B. 1258, S.D. 1.

Your Committees further find that the Core Knowledge program created by Professor E.D. Hirsch, Jr. of the University of Virginia has been used by hundreds of schools across the nation and can help improve students' reading, verbal reasoning, and critical thinking skills. However, to mandate the use of any single curriculum would be too prescriptive and unfair to the myriad of other effective curriculums which may be as or more effective than Core Knowledge in serving the educational and developmental needs of the Department of Education's diverse student population. Furthermore, these questions should be considered in the larger context as to whether the Department of Education should at some point in the future consider moving towards the establishment of a state-wide curriculum. Nevertheless, a rigorous, research-based curriculum designed to develop students' critical and creative thinking skills should be established and implemented throughout the public school system, albeit not to the exclusion of other diverse curricula. These provisions were contained in S.B. No. 451, S.D. 1.

Your Committees find that ongoing adjustments must be made to sustain and improve the education-workforce development pipeline, to constantly fine-tune the alignment between the evolving needs of employers and education and job training offered by the public educational system. These provisions were contained in S.B. No. 1865, S.D. 1.

Your Committees further find that many caring people volunteer in the public schools through a wide variety of initiatives, which provides a great benefit to the system. Many more people would also be inclined to volunteer if only the system could be made more accommodating. Several means of providing such accommodation could include the establishment of a position in the Department of Education dedicated to facilitating volunteerism, the development of a pilot project, and providing the department with the capability of offering volunteers medical, hospital, and surgical benefits to volunteers. These provisions were contained in S.B. No. 1812, S.D. 1.

Your Committees deleted the measure's contents and replaced it with the language contained in the S.B. No. 1661, S.D. 2, S.B. No. 1258, S.D. 1, S.B. No. 451, S.D. 1, S.B. No. 1865, S.D. 1, and S.B. No. 1812, S.D. 1 and held a hearing on the proposed contents.

Testimony in support of the proposed measure was submitted by the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, Department of Education, Department of Human Resources Development, Workforce Development Council, Hawaii Government Employees Association, Hawaii Business Roundtable, and Hawaii State Teachers Association.

Your Committees find that in comparing other public school districts' spending on information technology infrastructure, Seattle spends $304 per student and Wisconsin $309 per student, while Hawaii's projected technology budget is merely $157 per student.

Upon further consideration, your Committees have amended the proposed draft by deleting provisions regarding the department's authorization to carry over unencumbered funds.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Education and Military Affairs and Labor that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 841, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 841, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Education and Military Affairs and Labor,

____________________________

BRIAN KANNO, Chair

____________________________

NORMAN SAKAMOTO, Chair