STAND. COM. REP. NO. 435

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 651

       S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Ninth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2017

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committees on Higher Education and Transportation and Energy, to which was referred S.B. No. 651 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO POST-SECONDARY EDUCATION,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to make pilot schools that are approved by the Federal Aviation Administration subject to the oversight of the Hawaii Post-Secondary Education Authorization Program.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from one individual.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs. 

     Your Committees find that currently no mechanism exists for a flight school that is accredited and approved by the Federal Aviation Administration to obtain state approval of its operations.  Your Committees additionally find that Hawaii's Department of Education licenses private trade, vocational, and technical schools that do not offer degrees, but that there is an exception for flying schools qualified under the Federal Aviation Administration.  Your Committees note testimony provided by the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs that the Department of Education has the discretion to regulate any school that falls under an exception.

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

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Higher Education and Transportation and Energy that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 651, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 651, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committees on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health and Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Higher Education and Transportation and Energy,

________________________________ LORRAINE R. INOUYE, Chair

________________________________ KAIALI'I KAHELE, Chair