STAND. COM. REP. NO. 185

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 243

       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. 243 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE WESTERN INTERSTATE COMMISSION FOR HIGHER EDUCATION,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

     (1)  Establish the Hawaii Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (Hawaii WICHE);

     (2)  Allow Hawaii WICHE to establish a repayment policy for students who receive financial support from certain funds appropriated for the Hawaii WICHE Professional Student Exchange Program; and

     (3)  Establish a Professional Student Exchange Program Special Fund.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education.  Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Department of Budget and Finance.

     Your Committee finds that as currently written, chapter 304A, Part VII, Subpart D, Hawaii Revised Statutes, provides for the appointment of state commissioners to the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE) but does not provide for or allow the Hawaii commissioners to independently set conditions on students who participate in the Professional Student Exchange Program (PSEP).  This measure will establish and define the Hawaii WICHE and give it the necessary authority to develop a repayment policy for PSEP students who decide not to return to Hawaii.

     Currently five WICHE states have return requirements for students who benefit from participation in the PSEP.  Studies find that states with these requirements have an average rate of return of seventy-four percent and states without return requirements have average rate of return of thirty-nine percent.

     Last year, the State spent $1,064,465 to subsidize the cost of professional education for Hawaii students in fields of study unavailable at local universities but in high demand in the State.  The Hawaii WICHE commissioners should have the option of establishing return requirements to best meet the needs of both the students and the State as a whole.

     Your Committee has amended this measure to clarify that the Hawaii commissioners are appointed both as the state commissioners for WICHE and as the Hawaii commissioners to the Hawaii WICHE Commission.

     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. 243, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 243, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

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

____________________________

JILL TOKUDA, Chair