STAND. COM. REP. NO.306

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2001

RE: S.B. No. 1216

S.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2001

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Education, to which was referred S.B. No. 1216 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO STUDENT LOANS FOR TEACHERS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to establish a Hawaii Educator Loan Program as a tool to recruit college students into the teaching profession.

Testimony in support of the measure was received from the Lieutenant Governor, the Department of Education, the Dean of the College of Education of the University of Hawaii, the Hawaii State Teachers Association, the Hawaii Association of Independent Schools, and the Hawaii Business Roundtable. The Department of Budget and Finance and a private citizen testified in opposition to the measure.

Your Committee finds that according to the Hawaii Policy Group of the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future, teacher quality should be considered as one of the most influential factors in student achievement. In addition, based on recent statistics, less college graduates are turning to teaching as a profession. In order to reverse this trend, incentives must be provided to attract persons into the profession.

Your Committee also finds that the measure accomplishes this goal by establishing a Hawaii Educator Loan Program and Special Fund to be administered by the University of Hawaii for the purpose of providing financial support to students who graduate with a baccalaureate degree in education and who agree to teach in the public school system. To be eligible for the loan program, a candidate must be:

(1) A resident of the State for at least one year;

(2) In need of financial assistance; and

(3) Enrolled in a University of Hawaii program that will culminate in the award of a baccalaureate degree in education.

The maximum amount a candidate may receive from the loan program is the aggregate amount equivalent to tuition and school supplies that would be incurred to obtain the degree.

If a loan recipient graduates with a baccalaureate degree in education, and subsequently teaches at a public school in the State, for each year the candidate teaches in a public school, one-tenth of the loan will be forgiven, and for each year of service in a hard-to-fill position, including special education, regular education shortage categories, or in Title 1 schools, an additional one-tenth of a year shall be forgiven as well.

To fund this program, the measure also includes a blank appropriation section.

Your Committee has amended the measure by:

(1) More accurately reflecting that a loan recipient be enrolled in a teacher education program approved by the Department of Education at the University of Hawaii in order to receive a loan under the program;

(2) Limiting the employment circumstances under which a loan recipient may have a portion of their loan forgiven by deleting the category of simply teaching in a public school as a qualifying criteria for loan forgiveness;

(3) Requiring that in order to receive any loan forgiveness, the loan recipient, in addition to teaching in a Hawaii public school in a hard-to-fill position as determined by the Superintendent of Education, including special education, regular education shortage categories, or Title 1 schools, must also be either:

(A) An elementary school teacher teaching in the field of elementary education who has met standards as set forth by the Hawaii Teacher Standards Board; or

(B) A secondary school teacher teaching in the subject area that is relevant to the loan recipient's academic major as certified by the Department of Education and has met standards as set forth by the Hawaii Teacher Standards Board.

(4) Requiring that a loan recipient work in the public school system for at least ten consecutive years in order to qualify for total loan forgiveness;

(5) Inserting a provision that requires that the remaining loan and interest balance be repaid at an interest rate of ten percent if the loan recipient fails to abide by the ten-year qualification rule; and

(6) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of style and 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. 1216, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1216, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

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

____________________________

NORMAN SAKAMOTO, Chair