STAND. COM. REP. NO. 105-00

                                 Honolulu, Hawaii
                                                    , 2000

                                 RE: H.B. No. 1874
                                     H.D. 1




Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say
Speaker, House of Representatives
Twentieth State Legislature
Regular Session of 2000
State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Education, to which was referred H.B. No.
1874 entitled:

     "A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO EDUCATIONAL ACCOUNTABILITY,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this bill is to establish an interagency
educational accountability working group to establish a two-year
suspension of all rules, policies, procedures, and practices,
beginning July 1, 2001, to allow the Department of Education to
restructure and reallocate its resources to support student
achievement.

     Your Committee finds that this measure represents the first
nascent step in what will develop ultimately into a high-stakes,
collaborative endeavor to support student achievement.  While
your Committee believes that the Superintendent of Education and
the interagency educational accountability working group should
be given more authority to restructure and reallocate the
Department of Education's resources to support student
achievement, it also believes that the process established by the
Legislature should be deliberate and exacting, rather than left
to chance.  Therefore, your Committee urges the Legislature to
continue the discussion initiated by this measure in order to
describe in greater detail the appropriate freedoms and controls
that will apply eventually to the superintendent and the working
group.


 
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                                 STAND. COM. REP. NO. 105-00
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     This measure represents a substantial departure from
previous accountability legislation--which tended to be
prescriptive and restrictive in nature--in that it is based on
trust and the belief that the Superintendent of Education and the
interagency educational accountability working group will act in
the best interest of public school students.  Your Committee
believes that the definition of futility is trying the same idea
time and time again, and expecting to achieve different results.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure
from the District Superintendent of the central Oahu departmental
school district, the Hawaii Business Roundtable, the Hawaii State
Parents, Teachers and Students Association, The Chamber of
Commerce of Hawaii, and two private citizens.  The Department of
Education concurred with and strongly supported the intent and
purpose of this measure.  The Hawaii State Teachers Association
opposed this measure.

     Your Committee has amended this bill by:

     (1)  Adding a representative of the Hawaii State Parents,
          Teachers and Students Association to the interagency
          educational accountability working group; and

     (2)  Making technical nonsubstantive changes for purposes of
          clarity and style.

     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.
1874, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second
Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1874, H.D. 1, and
be referred to the Committee on Finance.

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



                                   ______________________________
                                   KEN ITO, Chair

 
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