Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Higher Education and Media, Arts, Science, and Technology, to which was referred S.B. No. 1506 entitled:

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to make an appropriation to Leeward Community College to purchase mobile high definition television production facilities that include transportation and production equipment.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from Leeward Community College (LCC) and twenty individuals.

LCC's TVPro program has international students who have come to Hawaii from all over the globe, including Greece, England, Germany, and Japan, to enroll in that program. LCC's TVPro also has students with baccalaureate and post-graduate degrees from prestigious film and television schools including the University of Southern California and University of California at Los Angeles. Students enroll in LCC's TVPro because of its hands-on instruction and professional skills that will land them a successful career.

Most college film or TV programs have a job placement rate of 11 to 13 per cent. LCC's TVPro has never had less than an 89 per cent placement rate consistently over 17 years, making it one of the most successful programs in the United States, at quadruple the national average. LCC's TVPro students and graduates work in every TV station in Hawaii, in Hollywood, on major TV networks, many feature films, virtually every TV show and movie that comes to Hawaii, and elsewhere around the world. At least 50 per cent of the entire staff of KITV are LCC's TVPro graduates.

Over the past 17 years, TVPro has never asked for or received any state funds for equipment. All of the equipment currently in LCC's TVPro possession have been acquired through federal grants including Title III and Carl Perkins funds. However, the Federal Communications Commission is requiring all TV stations to broadcast fully digital by 2006. Unfortunately, this technology is quite expensive. As a vocational program, it costs more for the hands-on instruction and the tools. LCC's TVPro acknowledges that the funding requested is a large sum of money, but the program is in dire need of new technology tools to teach its students.

Your Committees find that purchasing mobile high definition television production facilities would be an asset as well as beneficial to the LCC's TVPro program.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Higher Education and Media, Arts, Science, and Technology that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1506 and recommend that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.