STAND. COM. REP. NO. 870

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 1348

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 1348 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO EDUCATION,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to authorize the University Laboratory School to conform its student enrollment profile to meet University of Hawaii research requirements.  

     Your Committee received written comments in support of this measure from the State Public Charter School Commission, the University of Hawaii, University Laboratory School, ULS Governing Board, and twenty-one concerned individuals.  Your Committee received written comments on this measure from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and Aha Punana Leo.

     Your Committee finds that the provisions of section 302D-34, Hawaii Revised Statutes, prohibiting the use of ethnicity, gender, and income level in student admissions, conflict with the admission policies implemented by the University Laboratory School to fulfill University of Hawaii College of Education research requirements.  This measure will authorize the State Public Charter School Commission to approve the long-standing admissions policy of the University Laboratory School, while maintaining compliance with established federal law on similar laboratory school admission policies, and better reflect legislative intent when significant changes were made to charter school laws over the last four years.

     Your Committee notes that if the Standing Committees of the House of Representatives with subject matter jurisdiction over this measure decide to hear it, your Committee respectfully requests that the Standing Committees consider the written comments submitted by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs to your Committee, which requests that the Laboratory Schools of the Hawaiian Language College be similarly allowed the flexibility to adjust their schools' student body demographics.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1348 and recommends that it pass Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

________________________________

JILL N. TOKUDA, Chair