STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2162

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2516

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Education, to which was referred S.B. No. 2516 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO FACILITIES FUNDING FOR CHARTER SCHOOLS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds to the State Public Charter School Commission (Commission) to support its facilities pilot project.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the State Public Charter School Commission, Kamehameha Schools, Ho‘okako‘o Corporation, Hawaiian Education Council, Hawaii Public Charter Schools Network, School for Examining Essential Questions of Sustainability, Hawaii Academy of Arts and Science Public Charter School, Ke Kula ‘O Nāwahīokalani‘ōpu‘u Iki, and thirty-seven individuals.

Your Committee finds that funding for facilities at Hawaii's charter schools has been a long standing issue that needs creative solutions.  The Commission has created a pilot project for the allocation of funds to various charter schools for small scale facilities projects based, in part, on the need and performance of the charter schools.  The Commission has currently allocated $680,000 of federal impact aid for this pilot project, and if it keeps to its proposed timeline, the Commission would be able to vet first round projects prior to any general funds being released, should this measure pass.  This measure will provide additional support to the pilot project to assist charter schools with their facilities needs, understanding that these funds are more flexible and can take into account a range of situations from lease rent to capital campaigns.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by inserting an appropriation amount of $1,200,000 based on the Commission's oral testimony that the original amount of federal impact aid the Commission had set aside for the facilities pilot project was $1,200,000.

     Your Committee notes that the Commission is awaiting an opinion by the Attorney General on whether the Commission can use federal impact aid for its facilities pilot project.  Your Committee has asked the Commission to inform your Committee and any committees that may subsequently consider this measure as soon as it receives the Attorney General's opinion on this issue.

     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. 2516, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2516, 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 N. TOKUDA, Chair