Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2004

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Labor and Education, to which was referred S.B. No. 214, S.D. 1, entitled:

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to require the Office of Continuing Education at Leeward Community College (LCC) to establish pilot programs in Waipahu and Kalihi for the provision of services to the immigrants from the Freely Associated States—the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Republic of Palau, and the Federated States of Micronesia, to assist them in being assimilated, educated, trained, and prepared for gainful employment.

This measure also appropriates money from the funds received by the State from the federal government pursuant to the Compact of Free Association Amendments Act of 2003, P.L. 108-188, 11 Stat. 2027.

Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the University of Hawaii, Communities in Schools-Hawaii Project of the Y.M.C.A., Catholic Charities Hawaii Community and Immigrant Services, and the Volunteer Resource Center of Hawaii.

Your Committees find that a great influx of Micronesian, Marshallese, and Palauan immigrants has occurred over the past few years; however, the community has been unable to provide adequate services to these immigrants in order to assist them in assimilating and becoming gainfully employed members of the community. Your Committees further find that the problem extends from the very young, who are lacking proper educational and language services, to adults, who are ill-equipped to obtain employment due to a lack of language skills, education, and training.

Your Committees determine that LCC is an institution committed to the betterment of diverse ethnic populations. LCC's commitment to the promotion of cultural awareness and education, accomplished through its quality workforce programs, is the ideal institution for developing and administering a program to provide comprehensive services to the Micronesian, Marshallese, and Palauan communities. Furthermore, your Committees determine that areas on Oahu which require particular attention include Waipahu and Kalihi, where the number of these immigrants is much higher. Therefore, your Committees believe that the development of pilot programs for Waipahu and Kalihi will provide comprehensive services to the greatest number of Micronesian, Marshallese, and Palauan immigrants for the betterment of the their quality of life, as well as the development of a skilled workforce that need not become dependent upon public assistance.

Funding for these programs should be derived from Compact-Impact moneys allotted to Hawaii by the federal government pursuant to the Compact of Free Association Amendments Act of 2003, P.L. 108-188, 11 Stat. 2027. Your Committees find that $11,552,277 in Compact-Impact funds were appropriated to Hawaii by the federal government and that $1,000,000 of this money should be appropriated to the Office of Continuing Education at LCC to fund the aforementioned pilot programs. Your Committees believe that the expenditure of funds to properly educate and train these individuals will ultimately inure to the benefit of the State by means of creating a trained workforce and decreasing the cost to the State by limiting the number of individuals requiring public assistance.

Accordingly, your Committees have amended this measure by making nonsubstantive changes for purposes of clarity and consistency.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Labor and Education that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 214, S.D. 1, as amended herein, recommend that it be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means, in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 214, S.D. 2.