STAND. COM. REP. 2073

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2004

RE: S.B. No. 3238

S.D. 1

 

 

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 S.B. No. 3238 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO EDUCATION,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to:

(1) Implement education reform and decentralization measures; and

(2) Appropriate funding.

Your Committee received testimony in support of the measure from the Board of Education, a Board of Education member, Department of Education, Department of Accounting and General Services, Hawaii Government Employees Association, Hawaii Business Roundtable, and Hawaii State Teachers Association. Your Committee received testimony in opposition to the measure from the Governor's Senior Policy Advisor, a Board of Education member, and the Director of Finance.

Your Committee finds that the quality of and public confidence in the public educational system has been declining for decades. It is time for major reform. The best means of enhancing the ability of the system to ensure high academic achievement is by:

(1) Providing the means for a dramatically increased amount of community participation in the affairs of the school;

(2) Adjusting the per-pupil allocation so that the factors which challenge learning and holistic development may be given appropriate weight, enabling more resources to follow those students who may need additional help to succeed and grow;

(3) Devolving authority and resources from the central administrative level to the schools;

(4) Training principals to succeed in their new role as instructional leaders;

(5) Encouraging excellence in teaching practice; and

(6) Consolidating the disparate functions relating to the Department of Education away from the various state agencies where these powers currently reside.

Your Committee has amended the measure by:

(1) Changing all references from "student weighted formula" to "weighted student formula";

(2) Clarifying that, under the weighted student formula, that not less than ninety three and one-half per cent of moneys allotted to the department shall be spent for schools and school complexes;

(3) Creating a Committee on Weights in the Department of Education to determine the appropriate weight to give each factor affecting learning, as well as an advisory group to oversee their work and submit their recommendations to the Board of Education;

(4) Establishing a more pragmatic framework for the delinking of certain rights, powers, functions, and duties from various state agencies to the Department of Education to reduce bureaucracy;

(5) Clarifying that the school community councils possess shared decision-making powers by providing the councils with responsibility over the school weighted student funding budget to ensure student achievement;

(6) Establishing that rules adopted to implement school community councils shall be exempt from the public notice and public hearing requirements of chapter 91, Hawaii Revised Statutes;

(7) Clarifying the composition and functions of the school community councils, and the principal's paramount executive authority in the event of any failure to reach consensus;

(8) Establishing a Principals Complex Forum, which shall be composed of all principals in a school complex and facilitated by the high school principal;

(9) Repealing the statutory educational objectives of the school/community-based management system;

(10) Repealing the provision allowing a waiver of policy, rule, or procedures for school community councils;

(11) Restricting the national board certification bonus of $5,000 per year to public school teachers and providing a one-time reimbursement of not more than $2,500 to successful public school teacher applicants for national board certification for costs related to their application; and

(12) Adding a provision regarding school complex-based decision making stating that, beginning with the 2006-2007 school year, all decisions relating to contracts for professional services and health and human services shall be made jointly and by majority vote of the principals in a school complex.

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 S.B. No. 3238, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 3238, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Education,

____________________________

NORMAN SAKAMOTO, Chair