WHEREAS, Act 168, Session Laws of Hawaii 1995, requested the Legislative Reference Bureau to apply a specified organizational framework to the statutory provisions in the Hawaii Revised Statutes relating to lower education, to identify statutes that should be consolidated, amended, or repealed to conform with recent education policy initiatives for the purposes of recodification of the education statutes; and

WHEREAS, Act 89, Session Laws of Hawaii 1996, which established a new education law in the Hawaii Revised Statutes, repealed the existing chapters relating to lower education and amended other provisions relating to lower education, was the result of the recodification project authorized under Act 168; and

WHEREAS, the resulting chapter 302A of the Hawaii Revised Statutes, encompasses formerly separate and disparate chapters under a single organizational structure, thereby facilitating one's ability to understand lower education related laws; and

WHEREAS, on the other hand, the statutory provisions relating to higher education are presently scattered among several disparate chapters of the Hawaii Revised Statutes, making it difficult to locate statutes on any given issue or to sense any structure or coherence to those laws; and

WHEREAS, a recodification project for the higher education statutes will give those statutes a level of coherence, organization, and vision, which are presently missing from them; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-second Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2003, that the Legislative Reference Bureau, with the involvement of the Office of the Attorney General and the Office of the General Counsel of the University of Hawaii, is respectfully requested to develop and apply an organizational framework to Title 18, Hawaii Revised Statutes, including but not limited to chapters 304, 305, 305A, 305E, 305H, 306, 307, 308, 309, 310, and 311, Hawaii Revised Statutes, to identify statutes that should be consolidated, amended, or repealed for the purposes of recodifying the higher education statutes; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the University of Hawaii is further requested to identify individuals within the University of Hawaii system who deal with the higher education statutes on a regular basis and are able to offer input on problems they have encountered with existing provisions in the higher education statutes and suggestions on the recodification effort; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Legislative Reference Bureau is requested to submit a report of its findings and recommendations along with proposed legislation twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2004 to the Legislature; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the Director of the Legislative Reference Bureau, the Attorney General, and the President and the General Counsel of the University of Hawaii.

Report Title:

Higher Education Recodification