SB2873

THE SENATE	S.B. NO.	2873
TWENTY-FOURTH LEGISLATURE, 2008
STATE OF HAWAII

A BILL FOR AN ACT

MAKING AN APPROPRIATION FOR THE HAWAII COUNTY ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY COUNCIL.

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

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that recently immigrated Marshallese to the district of Ka‘u on the Big Island of Hawaii are in dire need of help. The majority of the Marshallese residents are low-income and living in poverty. The lack of adequate services and facilities for this impoverished, rural population keeps them economically, educationally, and socially stagnant.

Most, if not all, of the Marshallese speak very little English. As English is the dominant language prerequisite for nearly every available job in the community, finding employment becomes very difficult and therefore, many Marshallese adults are unemployed and subsist on minimal income they receive from reparation payments for the Bikini Atoll nuclear tests conducted in the past by the United States. Language barriers also prevent the Marshallese from access to social services, including welfare and medical benefits for which they may be eligible.

The Marshallese families live in Hawaiian Ocean View Estates. Multiple families pool their limited resources to purchase a single lot and build several houses upon this single lot. The homes are basic shelters made of plywood nailed together and are without toilets and water lines. Electricity hook up is made with extension cords that run from one unit to the next. The Marshallese dwell in crowded quarters with relatives, to such an extent that some children sleep on carpets placed on the lava fields that serve as the floor or bed.

The Hawaiian Ocean View Estates has no water line. Water must be fetched from public spigots, and most families lacking resources are only able to haul water to their homes by carpooling, thus hauling the water in quantities barely adequate for drinking and cooking, and only seldom for bathing and washing.

An estimated one hundred fifty pre-school aged Marshallese children reside in the Hawaiian Ocean View Estates. A recent county community assessment has found that the Hawaii Ocean View Estate area needs additional early child care and education services with its high concentration of the Marshallese population. Most Marshallese students are underachievers in schoolwork due to their limited English proficiency. The school enrollment of Marshallese students for the 2007-2008 school year in the English as a second language program for the two public schools are seventy per cent in Naalehu elementary and middle school and seventy-seven per cent in Pahala elementary and Ka‘u high school.

Marshallese children are placed at a tremendous disadvantage in receiving an adequate education due to language barriers, as English is the standard language used in the classrooms. Furthermore, because of a lack of adequate time allotted for socializing in the tight after school transportation schedule, there are increased cultural barriers for Marshallese children to assimilate and intermingle after school with children of other ethnicities.

Hawaii county economic opportunity council proposes to prevent, alleviate, and eliminate the health, social, cultural, and economic conditions faced by the Marshallese.

The purpose of this Act is to make an appropriation to the department of labor and industrial relations, office of community services, for the Hawaii county economic opportunity council to implement new programs and to expand existing programs to aid the Marshallese.

SECTION 2. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $540,000 or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2008-2009 for the Hawaii county economic opportunity council to assist the Marshallese in the county of Hawaii, for:

(1) A head start home-based program for preschool children;

(2) A language arts multicultural program for underachieving elementary school students to raise their academic achievement to a new higher level;

(3) A dropout prevention ("right track program") for at‑risk students to graduate from high school;

(4) Employment core services program for low-income person to obtain employment; and

(5) One fourteen passenger van.

The sum appropriated shall be expended by the department of labor and industrial relations, office of community services, for the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 3. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2008.

INTRODUCED BY:	_____________________________