SB2692

THE SENATE	S.B. NO.	2692
TWENTY-FOURTH LEGISLATURE, 2008
STATE OF HAWAII

A BILL FOR AN ACT

making an appropriation for the teacher recruitment pipeline.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that Hawaii continues to have a critical shortage of trained teachers for the public school system. In order to address the teacher shortage, members of the Hawaii alliance for future teachers initiated the teacher cadet program, which began in the 2004-2005 school year with participation of five public high schools: Farrington, Kaimuki, Campbell, Kapolei, and Kahuku high schools. By the 2006-2007 school year, the number of participating schools had increased to twelve schools.

From 1999 to 2007, the teacher shortage problem has acerbated to the extent where on the average, fifteen hundred new teachers had to be hired to fill the vacancies in the public schools. One reason is that baby boomer-type teachers have led to a large increase in teachers who retired. Many have reached the age of retirement and want to go on to doing other things in their golden years. In addition to the retirements, statistics from the department of education show that, on the average, after the first year, approximately forty per cent of the new hires go back to the mainland or other jobs. After the second year, this percentage increases to fifty per cent of the new hires. This has led to a big problem in retaining our teachers. Thus, the problem of not having enough teachers for our classrooms keeps getting worse every year.

Another reason for Hawaii not having enough teachers is that the teacher training institutions in Hawaii are not producing enough teachers each year to meet the need for teachers.

The legislature further finds that, since 2002, the Hawaii alliance for future teachers, a grass-roots organization formed to address the teacher shortage problem, began the teacher cadet program in Hawaii. For three years, the Hawaii alliance for future teachers, in partnership with the department of education, implemented a course called explorations in education in some public schools in Hawaii. The goal of the Hawaii alliance for future teachers is to home-grow our own teachers by introducing high school students to the world of teaching. In three years, the number of participating schools has increased from five to twelve schools and approximately two hundred students, mostly seniors, have completed the course.

Members of the first cohort group are presently into their junior year in college. A database system has been installed to track all of the students who have gone through the teacher cadet program. The best and brightest students have been recruited to go through a rigorous course that addresses standards in the teaching profession.

The content of the course includes learning styles, self-assessment, developmental stages of learning, governance in schools, the history of education in the United States and Hawaii, and realities of the teaching profession, including salaries. An important component of the explorations course, renamed teacher education in 2006, is the field experience where students actually experience teaching and work with teachers and students on a regular basis. The feedback from students and mentor teachers has been overwhelmingly positive in terms of gains made by the students in the classrooms as well as the enriching experience for high school students who are seriously considering teaching as a career.

The Hawaii alliance for future teachers would like to continue its work by recruiting more high schools in the public school system to offer the teacher education course. It is continuing its mission to home-grow more students to enter the career of teaching and, thus, impact the teacher shortage problem in Hawaii.

The purpose of this Act is to appropriate funds to the Hawaii teacher cadet program to address the teacher shortage in Hawaii.

SECTION 2. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $176,000 or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2008-2009 to the Hawaii teacher cadet program fund.

SECTION 3. There is appropriated out of the Hawaii teacher cadet program fund the sum of $176,000 or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2008-2009 for the operations of the Hawaii teacher cadet program, including recruiting additional schools for the teacher education course, training of teachers, supporting teachers, mentoring of students, tracking of students for the Hawaii teacher cadet program, and revising and updating the Hawaii teacher education curriculum.

The sum appropriated shall be expended by the department of education for the purposes of this Act; provided that the Hawaii alliance for future teachers shall match the amount of the funds appropriated for the purposes of this Act, pursuant to section 302A-401.5, Hawaii Revised Statutes.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2008.

INTRODUCED BY:	_____________________________