THE SENATE	S.B. NO.	2451
TWENTY-FIFTH LEGISLATURE, 2010
STATE OF HAWAII

A BILL FOR AN ACT

RELATING TO EDUCATION.

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

     SECTION 1.  The legislature finds that the Reinventing Education Act of 2004 (Act 51, Session Laws of Hawaii 2004) established a weighted student formula to allocate moneys to schools according to the different costs of educating students with different needs.  Despite the intended equitable distribution of funds, the legislature finds that the weighted student formula has placed small, remote schools at a disadvantage.  In the case of Hana high school and elementary, the budgetary shortfall has resulted in the loss of several well-qualified teachers and threatened the school's ability to offer minimum course requirements for students to earn high school diplomas in 2010.  If Hana high school is unable to offer its students the requisite courses for graduation, those students' next closest public high school, King Kekaulike high school, is a nearly forty-mile, two-hour drive away.

     The legislature finds that despite the current economic situation, remote schools should be funded to retain the minimal personnel and resources necessary to graduate students.  As of 2005, six schools were excepted from weighted student formula allocations, receiving instead categorical allotments that guarantee the minimum number of positions and amount of resources to ensure that school operations can continue.

     The purpose of this Act is to require that funding allocations for remote schools be determined by categorical allotments rather than through the weighted student formula.

     SECTION 2.  Section 302A-1303.6, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

"§302A-1303.6  Weighted student formula. (a)  Based upon recommendations from the committee on weights, the board of education, not less than annually, shall adopt a weighted student formula for the allocation of moneys to public schools that takes into account the educational needs of each student.  The department, upon the receipt of appropriated moneys, shall use the weighted student formula to allocate funds to public schools[.]; provided that a remote school, as defined in subsection (b), and other schools designated by the committee on weights shall not be allocated operating funds using the weighted student formula and shall instead be allocated operating funds by categorical allotments that guarantee the funding of a minimum number of instructional positions to ensure at least minimum course requirements are maintained.  Principals shall expend moneys provided to the principals' schools.  This section shall only apply to charter schools for fiscal years in which the charter schools elect pursuant to section 302B-13 to receive allocations according to the weighted student formula.

(b)  For purposes of this section, "remote school" means any public school, as defined in section 302A-101, within a school complex with a public high school that is the only public high school:

(1) Within a fifteen-mile radius of another public high school; or

(2) On an island;

provided that if a school includes several school types (elementary, middle, or high school), that entire school's definition as a remote school shall be determined using the school's highest school type (highest grade levels of instruction), and the definition shall apply to the entire school."

     SECTION 3.  Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken.  New statutory material is underscored.

     SECTION 4.  This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2010.

INTRODUCED BY:

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Report Title:

Weighted Student Formula; Exception; Remote Schools

Description:

Requires remote schools to be allocated funds using categorical allotments, rather than through the weighted student formula.  Defines a remote school as any public school within a school complex that has the only public high school within a fifteen-mile radius or on an island.

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