STAND. COM. REP. NO. 362

                                   Honolulu, Hawaii
                                                     , 1999

                                   RE:  S.B. No. 826
                                        S.D. 1




Honorable Norman Mizuguchi
President of the Senate
Twentieth State Legislature
Regular Session of 1999
State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Education and Technology, to which was
referred S.B. No. 826 entitled: 

     "A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO GENDER EQUITY IN SPORTS,"

begs leave to report as follows:
     
     The purpose of this measure is to prohibit persons, on the
basis of their sex, from being discriminated against in any
interscholastic, club, or intramural athletics offered by a
public school.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure
from the Hawai`i Civil Rights Commission, the Hawaii State
Commission on the Status of Women, Gender Equity Sports Club, the
Hawaii Congress of Parents, Teachers and Students, the Hawaii
State Teachers Association, Hawaii Women Lawyers, and eight
individuals.  The Department of Education (DOE) submitted
comments.

     Your Committee finds that the DOE has been working on gender
equity in sports, making a special effort to encourage female
participation.  For example, girls teams have been formed this
school year for wrestling and golf, and the public school
athletic leagues chose to form junior varsity girls' volleyball
teams while the formation of boys, teams have been delayed due to
funding limits.  In addition, coaches' salaries and allocations
for transportation, equipment, and supplies are evenly divided
between boys' and girls' teams.


 
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     Your Committee further finds that as a result of these
efforts, girls' participation in public high school sports has
more than doubled in the last twenty years, while the number of
boys participating has grown twenty percent.  Your Committee
believes, however, that there is still much to be done.

     Your Committee has amended this bill to:

     (1)  Delete the references to "bodily contact sport";

     (2)  Authorize the Superintendent of Education and the
          Advisory Commission on Gender Equity in Sports, not the
          Civil Rights Commission, to determine the equal
          opportunities available;

     (3)  Establish the Advisory Commission within the Department
          of Education, rather than the Department of Labor and
          Industrial Relations;

     (4)  Clarify that consideration by the Civil Rights
          Commission of the failure to provide necessary funding
          for teams for one sex is for determination of
          violations under this Act;

     (5)  Change the composition of the Advisory Commission from
          eleven to seven members, all to be appointed by the
          Superintendent;

     (6)  Delete the July 1, 2000, completion date, and require
          the Superintendent rather than the Advisory Commission
          define equity in athletics for public schools;

     (7)  Delete the subsection that would require the Board of
          Education to implement enforcement mechanisms;

     (8)  Delete the penalties section; and

     (9)  Change "public school" to "public high school"
          throughout this measure.

     Your Committee believes that this measure, as amended, will
provide a firm basis for achieving gender equity in public high
school sports.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your
Committee on Education and Technology that is attached to this
report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose
of S.B. No. 826, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass

 
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Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 826,
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 and
                                   Technology,



                                   ______________________________
                                   DAVID Y. IGE, Chair

 
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