STAND. COM. REP. NO. 783

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 836

       S.D. 2

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. 836, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOLS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to support charter schools by providing a framework for the acquisition of public charter school facilities.

     Your Committee received written comments in support of this measure from the State Public Charter School Commission and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.  Your Committee received written comments on this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources.

     Your Committee finds that charter schools have struggled with obtaining adequate facilities funding for a long time.  More specifically, start-up charter schools face difficulties funding the costs of their facilities because they must use operational funds to cover these costs.  Your Committee believes that support is needed for charter schools to obtain adequate facilities to ensure the financial, academic, and organizational well-being of public charter schools.  Your Committee further finds that providing a reliable framework to use vacant state department facilities will relieve some of the financial burden on the public charter schools.

     Your Committee also finds that requiring each state department to adopt rules for the use of its vacant facilities would be overly burdensome.  Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Removing the requirement that each department adopt rules regarding the use of its vacant facilities, and deleting the definition of "department"; and

     (2)  Deleting references to twenty-first century schools and mixed-use facilities as allowable uses of vacant department facilities.

     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. 836, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 836, S.D. 2.

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

________________________________

JILL N. TOKUDA, Chair