STAND. COM. REP. 2262

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2004

RE: S.B. No. 2175

S.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2004

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Education, to which was referred S.B. No. 2175 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO EDUCATION,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to create a trust fund to fund scholarships as a requirement of the State's participation in the federal Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Program (GEAR UP).

Your Committee received testimony in support of the measure from the Principal Investigator of GEAR UP of the University of Hawaii, the Director of Student Equity Excellence and Diversity of the University of Hawaii, the Department of Education, and the Hawaii State Teachers Association.

Your Committee finds that in September 2000, the University of Hawaii, on behalf of the State of Hawaii, received a five-year, $10.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education's Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP). The purpose of GEAR UP nationwide is to increase the number of low-income students who are prepared to enter and succeed in postsecondary education. All GEAR UP state grants are required to have two major features: an early intervention component and a scholarship component. This measure would enable the University of Hawaii to satisfy the latter requirement.

Your Committee has amended the measure by removing its contents and replacing it with language provided by the University of Hawaii. This material is the same in intent as the original Act, but clarifies the legal background of the University of Hawaii as the administrator of the trust fund.

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. 2175, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2175, 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