STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2101

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2383

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Ninth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2018

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Education, to which was referred S.B. No. 2383 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO EDUCATION,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

(1) Amend provisions of the national certification incentive program within the Department of Education to include school psychologists who have achieved national certification;

(2) Amend provisions related to eligible schools where teachers or school psychologists with national certification are eligible for the incentive program;

(3) Beginning with fiscal year 2018-2019, and each fiscal year thereafter, require funding requests by charter schools for teacher incentive programs, bonuses, and other compensation beyond regular wages to be a separate line item in the general appropriations act and supplemental appropriations act; and

(4) Appropriate funds for certain bonuses for public school teachers and for national certification incentive program bonuses for charter schools.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Education, State Public Charter School Commission, Hawaii State Teachers Association, Hawai‘i Association of School Psychologists, and nine individuals. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Budget and Finance.

Your Committee finds that Hawaii continues to suffer from a shortage of qualified teachers and that financial incentives are a key strategy for the recruitment and retention of teachers. National certified education professionals, including school psychologists, are critical to increasing learning growth for students, especially in hard-to-fill schools. Due to resource shortages and low pay experienced by educators working in high-need and economically impaired areas, it is critical to incentivize the pursuit of professional excellence and reward quality educators.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Specifying that the appropriated funds shall be used to pay for bonuses for public school teachers, charter school teachers, and school psychologists for collectively bargained placement bonuses in schools determined as hard-to-fill by the Department of Education and national certification incentive program bonuses;

(2) Deleting provisions that would have appropriated funds to the Hawaii State Public Charter School Commission for national certification incentive program bonuses for charter schools; and

(3) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments 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 is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2383, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2383, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

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

________________________________

MICHELLE N. KIDANI, Chair