Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2004

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Education, to which was referred H.B. No. 2645, H.D. 2, entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to exempt retired Department of Education teachers holding a teaching license from any prerequisite coursework that the department requires of other substitute teachers.

Your Committee received testimony in support of the measure from the Hawaii State Teachers Association. Your Committee received testimony in opposition to the measure from the Department of Education.

Your Committee finds that it is somewhat arbitrary to assume that a retired Department of Education teacher somehow loses access to their professional experience simply by virtue of retirement. To the contrary, their skills are very valuable and make them a premium source of much-needed substitutes.

Nevertheless, your Committee is also cognizant and supportive of the Department of Education's laudable goal of maintaining certain minimum baseline standards for its pool of substitute teachers. Indeed, if teachers have been retired for some time, they may not be familiar with new developments in pedagogy and recently adopted education reform models that impact on teaching.

Your Committee finds the best way of reconciling retired teachers' desire to serve and the Department's wish to maintain standards is by having a limited, fixed period after retirement during which they are exempt from the coursework required of other substitutes.

Your Committee has amended the measure by:

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 H.B. No. 2645, H.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2645, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.