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.C.R. No. 113 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to request the Legislative Reference Bureau to study the funding and regulation of new century charter schools.

Your Committee heard testimony in support of the measure from the Department of Education and in opposition from the Legislative Reference Bureau.

Your Committee finds that current statutes relating to charter schools leave much open to interpretation. Your Committee would like to note, however, that many of these ambiguities are clarified in H.B. No. 946, S.D. 1, which is a fairly substantial revision of the new century charter school code. Nevertheless, your Committee finds these issues to be important enough to warrant passage of this Senate Concurrent Resolution to provide a vehicle for addressing them in case H.B. No. 946, S.D. 1, is not reported out of conference.

Your Committee further finds that a study could also provide a forum for broad-based consensus building on these matters during the legislative interim to facilitate passage of a similar charter school reform bill during the 2002 regular session, although it may be determined later in the 2001 regular session that the Legislative Reference Bureau may not be the appropriate agency to produce such a study.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Education that is attached to this report, your Committee concurs with the intent and purpose of S.C.R. No. 113 and recommends its adoption.