CONFERENCE COMMITTEE REP. 153-02
Honolulu, Hawaii
, 2002
RE: S.B. No. 3018
S.D. 1
H.D. 1
C.D. 1
Honorable Robert Bunda
President of the Senate
Twenty-First State Legislature
Regular Session of 2002
State of Hawaii
Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say
Speaker, House of Representatives
Twenty-First State Legislature
Regular Session of 2002
State of Hawaii
Sir:
Your Committee on Conference on the disagreeing vote of the Senate to the amendments proposed by the House of Representatives in S.B. No. 3018, S.D. 1, H.D. 1, entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO EDUCATION,"
having met, and after full and free discussion, has agreed to recommend and does recommend to the respective Houses the final passage of this bill in an amended form.
The purposes of the measure are to:
(1) Enable the Superintendent of Education, appointed by the governor, to set state educational policy;
(2) Establish a school district apportionment commission to establish fifteen school districts to deliver public education within that district;
(3) Establish elected, five person district school boards to implement statewide educational policy within their district;
(4) Authorize the district school boards to choose a district administrator with broad powers and flexible authority from a list of three choices provided by the Superintendent of Education; and
(5) Establish a joint senate-house task force to analyze the effect of and propose legislation improving the measure.
Your Committee finds that, although having the only statewide school district in the country allows Hawaii to equitably distribute resources within the public education system, it also removes decision-making and accountability far from the classrooms and local communities. It is time to begin seriously examining decentralization of public education governance as a means of elevating student achievement. Such a dramatic change, however, should not be entered into lightly or with undue haste. Therefore, some of the concrete changes proposed in this measure may be somewhat premature.
In order to provide an extremely sound basis for public education governance reform, your Committee has retained a salient feature of this measure, a joint Senate-House task force to study decentralization of public education governance. Your Committee has amended the measure by:
(1) Broadening the membership of the task force to encompass the full spectrum of stakeholders;
(2) Adding the assistance of the Hawaii Educational Policy Center to that of the Legislative Reference Bureau for the research and drafting of proposed legislation; and
(3) Expanding the duties of the task force to include the examination of Board of Education (BOE) and Department of Education regulations, operations, and structures, and the proposal of amendments to the State Constitution and Hawaii Revised Statutes.
Your Committee seriously considered amending the measure to create complex administrative councils in order to initiate the process of bringing public education decision-making and accountability to the community. The councils would have been given powers very comparable to those of school/community based management councils: the power to design and implement structures of shared decision-making in personnel, curriculum, instruction, budget, and facilities, and the responsibility to be accountable for the results of such decisions.
However, the breadth of these powers could have possibly been interpreted as an infringement upon the constitutional power of the BOE to formulate statewide educational policy. Your Committee was also concerned that the creation of such councils may have interfered with the new superintendent's decentralization initiative already in process, as well as the superintendent's efforts at fostering accountability as required by the federal Public Law 107-110 No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.
As affirmed by the record of votes of the managers of your Committee on Conference that is attached to this report, your Committee on Conference is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 3018, S.D. 1, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Final Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 3018, S.D. 1, H.D. 1, C.D. 1.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the managers:
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ON THE PART OF THE HOUSE |
ON THE PART OF THE SENATE |
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____________________________ KEN ITO, Co-Chair |
____________________________ NORMAN SAKAMOTO, Chair |
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____________________________ NATHAN SUZUKI, Co-Chair |
____________________________ BRIAN KANNO, Co-Chair |
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____________________________ ERIC G. HAMAKAWA, Co-Chair |
____________________________ BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Co-Chair |
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