STAND. COM. REP. NO.

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2003

RE: S.B. No. 667

S.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Education, to which was referred S.B. No. 667 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO EDUCATION,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to establish a reconstituted state Board of Education comprising of elected and appointed members and creating regional educational agencies for delivery of educational services based upon existing school complexes.

Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the Hawaii Business Roundtable and a trustee of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. Testimony in opposition to this measure was submitted by the Board of Education, the Hawaii Government Employees Association, the Hawaii State Teachers Association, and the Ko'olau News.

Your Committee finds that our State's public education system has reached a crossroads, where federal mandates, state financial restrictions, and expressions of public dissatisfaction are impinging upon educational progress. Your Committee recognizes and commends the ongoing efforts by the Superintendent and the school staff to continue to provide educational services within this context and their willingness to explore alternative models of delivering educational services, and is particularly encouraged by the move toward complex-based management.

Your Committee further finds that that the present unified school system, the "one size fits all" model, no longer serves the best interests of our public school students, who represent one of the most diverse student populations in our country. Additionally, the unified school system model also does not recognize differences between rural and urban schools, or even Hawaii's unique geography in which one school district is comprised of three separate islands. Your Committee also believes that because our state education system ranks amongst the largest school systems in the country, its size alone exacerbates the statewide system's inability to timely respond to the needs of our diverse student population.

Thus, your Committee agrees that it is time for systemic reforms to more clearly delineate roles and responsibilities vis-à-vis a newly constituted Board of Education that is more directly accountable to school districts, and through the establishment of regional education agencies to provide more direct oversight and accountability for the delivery of education services. Finally, your Committee acknowledges that educational reforms of this magnitude require ongoing discussions and debate, and therefore anticipates further consideration of this measure and related proposals during this legislative session.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Requiring the regional superintendent to establish within each school complex, a principal advisory council, for the purposes of soliciting and receiving input regarding regional administrative policies, procedures and operations;

(2) Deleting the repeal of school/community-based management mandates and authorities until their role can be more clearly articulated within this new governance and administrative structure;

(3) Changing the effective date to April 20, 2037, to allow for ongoing discussion during this legislative session; and

(4) Making technical, nonsubstantive changes for the purposes of clarity and style.

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. 667, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 667, 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