STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3001

                                   Honolulu, Hawaii
                                                     , 2000

                                   RE:  H.B. No. 2491
                                        H.D. 1
                                        S.D. 1




Honorable Norman Mizuguchi
President of the Senate
Twentieth State Legislature
Regular Session of 2000
State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Education and Technology, to which was
referred H.B. No. 2491, H.D. 1, entitled: 

     "A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO SCHOOL LUNCH,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to provide flexibility to the
Department of Education (DOE) to set school lunch prices.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure
from the DOE.

     This measure authorizes the DOE to set the price for a
school lunch that ensures that moneys received are up to
one-third of the cost of preparing the lunch, rounded to the
nearest 25 cents and adjusted in the first year of a fiscal
biennium.  According to testimony of the DOE, this formula would
yield a price of $1 beginning the next school year.  The current
school lunch price is 75 cents.

     Your Committee notes that under the current law, the school
lunch program is subsidized by the federal government and the
State's general fund, and the price is limited to a maximum of
$1.  Although this is expected to continue even with this
measure, the amount of the subsidy is expected to be less with
this measure because it provides for a mechanism for cost-sharing
of the price of school lunches among the federal government, the

 
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                                   STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3001
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State, and students.  Your Committee has changed the effective
date to July 1, 2000.

     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 H.B. No. 2491, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that
it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B.
No. 2491, H.D. 1, 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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