STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1022

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.C.R. No. 82

 

 

 

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2011

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred S.C.R. No. 82 entitled:

 

"SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION URGING ALL HAWAII HIGH SCHOOLS TO PROVIDE HAWAIIAN LANGUAGE CLASSES,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

 

     (1)  Urge the Department of Education to require all public high schools to offer ‘olelo Hawai‘i classes; and

 

     (2)  Encourage all private high schools to offer ‘olelo Hawai‘i classes at their respective institutions.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs, and Papa Ola Lokahi.  Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Department of Education.

 

     Your Committee finds that the Hawaiian language is an integral aspect of the culture and identity of Hawai‘i, and Hawai‘i schools have played a key role in the decline and revival of the Hawaiian language.  In 1896, a law was passed that prohibited Hawaiian from being spoken in schools and the long-term impact of this law was devastating.  By the early 1980s, the Hawaiian language was on the brink of extinction, with only a handful of native speakers under the age of eighteen.  To save the language, advocates established Hawaiian language immersion schools, and more than twenty-five years later, these schools remain at the center of the thriving Hawaiian language movement.

 

     Your Committee is strongly supportive of the continuing efforts to expand the teaching of ‘olelo Hawai‘i in public and private schools throughout the State.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee concurs with the intent and purpose of S.C.R. No. 82 and recommends that it be referred to the Committee on Education.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Hawaiian Affairs,

 

 

 

____________________________

BRICKWOOD GALUTERIA, Chair