Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2001

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Education, to which was referred S.B. No. 1567 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to address the problem of overcrowded school complexes. Specifically, the measure defines an overcrowded school complex as one with at least 50 students beyond its maximum capacity, appropriates money to remedy overcrowding, allow for waivers of policy, and requires developers filing environmental impact statements to consult with principals within overcrowded school complexes.

Your Committee heard testimony in favor of the measure from three private individuals, and in opposition to the measure from the Department of Education.

Your Committee finds that when the Department of Education is forced to redistrict and transfer students to other schools within a school complex due to overcrowding within a school, families and communities are often disrupted. A student may be separated from favorite teachers and friends, and parents may lose the sense of community and solidarity developed with teachers, administrators, and other parents and children at the original school. Logistical and transportation problems for families may also be accentuated as well.

Your Committee has amended the measure by deleting its substantive provisions in favor of an alternative solution to the disruptions and financial hardships caused by overcrowding. This new approach would require the Department of Education to offer students eligible for free or reduced cost school lunch a subsidized school bus fare to their new school for a period not to exceed one year when they are forced to transfer schools because of redistricting. This measure shall not replace any existing services.

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 S.B. No. 1567, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1567, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.