STAND. COM. REP. NO. 56

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 1281

       S.D. 1

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2011

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Education, to which was referred S.B. No. 1281 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO EDUCATION,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to require the Committee on Weights to meet no less than once every odd-numbered year, rather than every year, to adopt a weighted student formula for the allocation of monies to public schools.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Education.

     Your Committee finds that six years after the creation of the Committee on Weights and the implementation of the weighted student formula, the need for the Committee on Weights to meet every year no longer exists.  Allowing the Committee on Weights to adopt a new weighted student formula less frequently, thereby maintains a more constant level of funding over two years, is an improved practice that will create stability for principals and community councils in developing academic and financial plans.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Education that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1281, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1281, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Education,

____________________________

JILL TOKUDA, Chair