STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1180

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.C.R. No. 166

       S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Ninth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2017

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Education, to which was referred S.C.R. No. 166 entitled:

"SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION REQUESTING THE AUDITOR TO PERFORM A STUDY OF THE NUMBER OF FIRST-YEAR TEACHERS HIRED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, THE FIVE-YEAR RETENTION RATES FOR FIRST-YEAR TEACHERS, AND STATISTICS OF TEACHERS AT DEPARTMENT SCHOOLS WHO TRANSFERRED FROM THEIR FORMER TEACHING POSITIONS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to request the Auditor to perform a study of:

     (1)  The number of first-year teachers hired by the Department of Education;

     (2)  The five-year retention rates for first-year teachers; and

     (3)  Statistics of teachers at Department schools who transferred from their former teaching positions.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii State Teachers Association.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Education and Office of the Auditor.

     Your Committee finds that Hawaii is in the midst of a teacher shortage crisis.  Your Committee further finds that, in the last five years, the number of state teacher vacancies has increased by forty-five percent.  Your Committee additionally finds that teacher shortages have a significant negative effect on student learning, especially in rural and designated hard-to-fill schools.  Your Committee also finds that accurate and updated information is vital to efforts to develop effective policies to address the shortage of teachers.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Clarifying that the starting point for all data collected in the study is 2012; and

     (2)  Making a technical, nonsubstantive amendment for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Education that is attached to this report, your Committee concurs with the intent and purpose of S.C.R. No. 166, as amended herein, and recommends that it be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means, in the form attached hereto as S.C.R. No. 166, S.D. 1.

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

________________________________

MICHELLE N. KIDANI, Chair