STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1452

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    H.B. No. 11

       H.D. 2

       S.D. 2

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred H.B. No. 11, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO TEACHERS,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to incentivize public school teachers to maintain national board certification and teach at certain schools by providing them with an additional $5,000 per year bonus.  

 

     Your Committee received written comments in support of this measure from the Department of Education, the Hawaii Teacher Standards Board, Hui for Excellence in Education, and one individual.

 

     Your Committee finds that maximizing student achievement is an important state interest, and that teacher quality is considered to be one of the most influential factors in student achievement.  The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards offers national board certification for teachers who complete a rigorous certification process, which includes providing evidence of a teacher's quality.  Your Committee also finds that schools in focus, priority, or superintendent's zones may have trouble recruiting high quality teachers.  Your Committee believes that providing high quality teachers who have national board certification with an additional per year bonus will incentivize these teachers to work in schools in focus, priority, or superintendent's zones.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by deleting provisions that would have provided an additional per year bonus to teachers with national board certification who continue to teach in a school that no longer has a qualifying designation pursuant to section 302A-706(a)(4), Hawaii Revised Statutes.

 

     Your Committee acknowledges the Hawaii State Teachers Association's position that an additional per year bonus offers an incentive to public school teachers who have national board certification and who continue to teach in schools that no longer qualify for a special designation that provides teachers with bonuses.  However, your Committee suggests that the collective bargaining process would be the appropriate forum to secure such a bonus.

 

     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 H.B. No. 11, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 11, H.D. 2, S.D. 2.

 

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

 

 

 

________________________________

JILL N. TOKUDA, Chair