Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Education and Military Affairs, to which was referred S.C.R. No. 37 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to urge the Department of Education to enter a lease/purchase agreement for a new public high school in Kihei funded by certificates of participation.

Testimony in support of the resolution was submitted by the Department of Education and an individual. The Department of Budget and Finance submitted testimony in opposition.

Your Committee finds that the two Maui high schools are experiencing overcrowding partly due to the growing population of Kihei. Both Baldwin High School and Maui High School are at least ten percent over capacity. While the Board of Education's standards for design size is one high school per one thousand students, approximately six hundred students from Kihei attend Maui High School.

Your Committee is sensitive to this situation and realizes that the scarcity of funding requires the use of alternative approaches to securing moneys for new schools. One method of alternative funding is the use of certificates of participation (COP). For this to be an effective funding option, the department must enter into lease/purchase agreements. With diminishing funds and increasing construction projects, the use of COPs should be examined as a funding method to ensure that the State is providing a proper educational environment for its students.

Upon further consideration, your Committee has amended this measure by specifying the amount needed to begin construction and the duration of the design and permitting process.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Education and Military Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee concurs with the intent and purpose of S.C.R. No. 37, as amended herein, and recommends that it be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means, in the form attached hereto as S.C.R. No. 37, S.D. 1.