STAND. COM. REP. NO. 877

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 374

       S.D. 2

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 374, S.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO DUAL CREDIT PROGRAMS,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to expand opportunities for high school students to earn high school and college level academic credit simultaneously.

 

     Specifically, this measure:

 

(1)  Renames the Running Start Program as the Dual Credit Program;

 

(2)  Expands the program to include qualified high school students in ninth and tenth grades, rather than be limited to those in eleventh and twelfth grades;

 

(3)  Expands the program to include private school and home-schooled high school students;

 

(4)  Exempts participating students from University of Hawaii tuition and fee charges;

 

(5)  Establishes that qualifications shall be uniform across all campuses;

 

(6)  Establishes support staff positions; and

 

(7)  Appropriates funds.

 

     Your Committee received written comments in support of this measure from the University of Hawaii System, the University of Hawaii Office of Career and Technical Education, Kapiolani Community College, Kohala High School, and eighteen individuals.  The Department of the Attorney General submitted written comments on this measure.

 

Your Committee finds that students who participate in dual credit programs such as Running Start, Jump Start, and Early College demonstrate higher college attendance and success rates than non-participating students.  As such, in order to maximize access and operational and funding efficiencies, combining these programs is a prudent step in the right direction.

 

     However, your Committee further finds that inclusion of private school students in the dual credit program would violate article X, section 1, of the Hawaii State Constitution, which prohibits the use of public funds "for the support or benefit of any sectarian or nonsectarian private educational institution", and interpretation of that provision in Spears v. Honda, 449 P.2d 130, 51 Haw. 1 (1968).

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

(1)  Deleting the provision making private and home-schooled students eligible for the Dual Credit Program;

 

(2)  Clarifying the language regarding University of Hawaii courses that may also satisfy the Department of Education high school graduation requirements; and

 

(3)  Changing the appropriations to unspecified amounts to encourage further discussion on 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. 374, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 374, S.D. 2.

 

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

 

 

 

________________________________

JILL N. TOKUDA, Chair