STAND. COM. REP. NO 3011

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                

 

RE:    H.B. No. 1971

       H.D. 2

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Education, to which was referred H.B. No. 1971, H.D. 2, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO LABOR,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to authorize administrative, support, and instructional employees in charter schools to fully participate in the State's systems for certain employee benefits and additional supports and incentives offered by the Department of Education to employees in Department public schools.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from Department of Education; State Public Charter School Commission; Hawaii State Teachers Association; United Public Workers, AFSCME, Local 646, AFL-CIO; and Hawaii Public Charter School Network.

 

     Your Committee finds that this measure will provide greater parity in benefits received between administrative, support, and instructional employees in charter schools and administrative, support, and instructional employees at Department of Education public schools.  However, there is concern about how the Department of Education and the State Public Charter School Commission (Commission) would fund the yearly costs of providing these benefits.  For example, the Department of Education testified that it spends approximately $2,200,000 to pay for incentives for hard-to-fill positions and the Teacher National Board Certification Incentive Program alone.

 

     Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Requiring the Department of Education and Commission to identify all incentives and bonuses provided to public school employees, including charter school employees, pursuant to statute, any master agreements and supplemental agreements entered into between the Department of Education and the exclusive representatives as defined in chapter 89, Hawaii Revised Statutes, and any supplemental agreements entered into pursuant to section 302D-25, Hawaii Revised Statutes, and indicate the total dollar amount and funding distribution method for each;

 

     (2)  Requiring the Department of Education and Commission to report their findings, including recommendations on the most efficient and equitable funding distribution methods associated with the incentives and bonuses identified, to the Legislature; and

 

     (3)  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 H.B. No. 1971, H.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1971, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committees on Judiciary and Labor and Ways and Means.

 

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

 

 

 

____________________________

JILL N. TOKUDA, Chair