STAND. COM. REP. NO. 831

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 619

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Ninth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2017

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committees on Ways and Means and Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred S.B. No. 619 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO EDUCATION,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to require the Department of Education to develop and implement a K-12 curriculum to career pipeline initiative.

 

     More specifically, this measure requires the Department of Education, in collaboration and consultation with the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism; the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations; and the University of Hawaii, to develop and implement a K-12 curriculum to career pipeline initiative to more closely align education to employment needs so that students graduate from high school with the right skills to enter the State's workforce.

 

     Your Committees received written comments in support of this measure from the Department of Education and the Hawaii State Teachers Association.

 

     Your Committees find that there is a disconnect between the needs and expectations of today's employers and the current skill levels of certain sectors of the State's workforce.  Employers have increasingly reported difficulties in finding individuals with the right skills for the right job openings, particularly in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, otherwise known as "STEM" jobs.  Your Committees find that this measure will help close the skills gap in the State by providing Hawaii's students with greater access to technical skill and STEM training so that they are ready to enter the State's workforce upon graduating from high school.

 

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

 

(1)  Appropriating an unspecified amount to the Department of Education for the 2017-2019 fiscal biennium to fund the K-12 curriculum to career pipeline initiative;

 

(2)  Changing the effective date to July 1, 2050, to facilitate further discussion on the measure; and

 

(3)  Making technical amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Ways and Means and Judiciary and Labor that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 619, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 619, S.D. 1.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Ways and Means and Judiciary and Labor,

 

________________________________

GILBERT S.C. KEITH-AGARAN, Chair

 

________________________________

JILL N. TOKUDA, Chair