STAND. COM. REP. NO. 962

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 897

       S.D. 2

 

 

 

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2007

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 897, S.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO TECHNOLOGY TRAINING,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose of this measure is to appropriate general funds into the Hawaii 3Ts school technology laboratories fund to expend for project EAST programs statewide.

 

     Your Committee received comments in support of the measure from the Department of Education, the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism, the National Defense Center of Excellence for Research in Ocean Sciences, Ho‘ike, and three concerned citizens.  The High Technology Development Corporation offered comments.

 

     Your Committee finds that Hawaii's continued prosperity and ability to preserve its quality of life and preferred lifestyle depend on the State's investment in human resources and innovation as the driver of economic development and as the State's response to the challenge of globalization.  Your Committee further finds that part of this investment should be in programs that produce graduates from Hawaii's secondary education system with analytical and problem-solving skills that can only be nurtured through early exposure to the hard sciences, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by making a number of technical amendments to:

 

     (1)  Specify in the operative provisions the purpose for the appropriation, which is to expand project EAST programs statewide;

 

     (2)  Clarify the ratio of matching funds to grants by reference to the specific statutory requirements of the fund;

 

     (3)  Clarify that the Economic Development Alliance of Hawaii has the lead in administering the fund; and

 

     (4)  Change the appropriation to an unspecified amount for the purposes of continued discussion of the measure.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 897, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 897, S.D. 2.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

 

 

 

____________________________

ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair