STAND. COM. REP. NO. 353

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2005

RE: S.B. No. 1641

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 Higher Education and Education and Military Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 1641 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to create a center for school redesign at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. The center will provide technical support to public secondary schools to develop small schools and learning communities.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the University of Hawaii, the University of Hawaii Office of School Redesign, Department of Education, and Hawaii Educational

Policy Center.

Too many high school students do not acquire the skills, knowledge, or disposition needed to graduate or to succeed in later life. The current education system was designed for a past era. It is necessary today to redesign high schools to meet current needs of students and ensure they are prepared for the future. We want all students to graduate ready for college and work, and to participate in a democratic society.

Your Committees find that there is compelling evidence that high school students who are in small schools consisting of fewer than five hundred students reach higher levels of achievement and are more likely to attend college. This is particularly true if the small schools create learning communities designed to help all students feel as though they are part of the group, and if these learning communities address each student's individual learning style and interest.

Your Committees have amended this bill by specifying the members of the advisory committee of the center for school redesign.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Higher Education and Education and Military Affairs that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1641, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1641, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

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

____________________________

NORMAN SAKAMOTO, Chair

____________________________

CLAYTON HEE, Chair