STAND. COM. REP. NO. 984

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 1933

       S.D. 2

 

 

 

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2007

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 1933, 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 improve public education in the State, including enhancing academic and fiscal accountability in the department of education.

 

     Specifically, this measure:

 

     (1)  Enhances services and the procurement of learning materials at the school complex level;

 

     (2)  Creates a business service center and an education service center to provide greater support to schools within each complex;

 

     (3)  Supports complex area level professional development training of school community councils;

 

     (4)  Allows schools to purchase business services to ensure best accounting and recordkeeping practices and adequate financial audit preparation;

 

     (5)  Encourages schools to pool resources to achieve objectives in paragraphs (1) to (4);

 

     (6)  Supports specialized high schools linked to Hawaii's workforce development needs;

 

     (7)  Enhances the role of the University of Hawaii in educational research and policy development;

 

     (8)  Creates an early childhood initiative; and

 

     (9)  Improves science and mathematics programs.

 

     Your Committee received supporting comments on this measure from the Governor, the Department of Education who supported parts 2, 3, and 5, the University of Hawaii, the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism, the State Council on Developmental Disabilities, the Center on Disabilities Studies, and a representative from CTA Solutions.

 

     Your Committee finds that recent reconfigurations and improvements to the public school educational system in the past few years have resulted in dramatic changes administratively and academically for administrators, teachers, parents, and especially students.  As stakeholders in the educational system strive to improve the quality and delivery of education in the State, your Committee is ever aware of, and sensitive to, the objectives, aspirations, and the needs of the Department of Education and the community-at-large.

 

This measure represents another major step in the improvement of the public school educational system to address specific needs and objectives of stakeholders in the system.

 

Your Committee has amended the measure by incorporating relevant provisions of two similarly related bills into this measure, S.B. No. 97, Making an Appropriation for Science Education, and S.B. No. 1267, Relating to Mathematics Education.  Your Committee will continue to review and study the proposals made in this measure during the course of the legislative session and has therefore retained or changed appropriations to unspecified amounts.  Your Committee has also made technical amendments for purposes of clarity and style.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1933, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1933, S.D. 2.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

 

 

 

____________________________

ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair