STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2232

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 2589

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2016

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Education, to which was referred S.B. No. 2589 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO EDUCATION,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to expand vocational, technical, and career pathway programs and ensure that secondary school students have the opportunity to participate in these types of programs.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the State Council on Developmental Disabilities, IMUAlliance, Hawaii State Teachers Association, and nine individuals.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Education and Office of the State Director for Career and Technical Education of the University of Hawaii System.

 

     Your Committee finds that vocational, technical, and career pathway programs can be very beneficial for students.  Such programs can equip students with skills necessary for in-demand jobs within the labor market.  These programs promote career readiness and decrease the risk of students dropping out of high school.  Vocational, technical, and career pathway programs are historically under-emphasized in Hawaii's schools.  This measure would provide the resources for those programs to expand and be more accessible to students.

 

     Your Committee further finds that the Department of Education testified that it currently maintains career and technical education programs in forty-six public high schools and that during the 2014-2015 school year, 29,346 students were registered in at least one career and technical education course.  Your Committee notes that the Department expressed its commitment to providing students with career and technical education opportunities and as such, a statutory requirement for such opportunities was unnecessary.

 

     Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Removing language statutorily requiring the Department of Education to implement vocational, technical, and career pathway programs; and

 

     (2)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

 

     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. 2589, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2589, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

 

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

 

 

 

________________________________

MICHELLE N. KIDANI, Chair