STAND. COM. REP. NO. 534

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2005

RE: S.B. No. 1774

 

 

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 Human Services, to which was referred S.B. No. 1774 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT MAKING AN APPROPRIATION FOR CULTURAL EDUCATION AND INTEGRATION, LANGUAGE, EMPLOYMENT, AND LEGAL SERVICES FOR IMMIGRANTS FROM THE FREELY ASSOCIATED STATES,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds to Leeward Community College for the continuation of the workforce development program established pursuant to Act 225, Session Laws of Hawaii 2004.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the University of Hawaii, Micronesian Community Network, Micronesian United of Hawaii, and one individual.

The Freely Associated States (FAS) are composed of the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau. The United Micronesian Association, an umbrella organization representing citizens of the FAS, met with officials from Leeward Community College to establish a framework, understanding, and partnership for the purposes of providing employment and training instruction to assist with job readiness, job placement, and job retention. The program includes basic education skills training, occupational skills training, English as a second language, and mentoring.

Hawaii attracts migrating citizens from the FAS who seek education, health, and economic advancement for themselves and their families. These students and their families lack both the language skills and the cultural awareness necessary to adapt to, let alone excel in, their new environment. However, the State is currently ill-equipped to facilitate their assimilation into our community. Your Committees find that it is incumbent upon the community to assist these FAS citizens and decrease the likelihood that they will need to rely upon public assistance in the future. Providing FAS communities with a coordinated, culturally coherent support system that addresses education, health, and employment training, is vital to the development of an educated and productive workforce within these communities.

Pursuant to Act 225, Session Laws of Hawaii 2004, Leeward Community College was tasked with developing a program to provide services to students from the Freely Associated States in order to ensure their success in school through cultural education and integration, language, employment, and legal services. As part of the community college system, Leeward Community College is sensitive to cultural awareness and education and is also dedicated to offering quality workforce programs. As such, Leeward Community College is an ideal candidate for shepherding a workforce program to provide comprehensive services to the FAS communities.

Your Committees further find that the Act did not provide funding. This measure would provide that necessary funding to carry out a very worthy and necessary program to help one of Hawaii's growing and neglected segments of the population.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Higher Education and Human Services that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1774 and recommend that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Higher Education and Human Services,

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SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair

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CLAYTON HEE, Chair