THE SENATE	S.B. NO.	1418
THIRTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2021
STATE OF HAWAII

A BILL FOR AN ACT

relating to education.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that mandating the department of education to use a weighted student formula to ensure schools have greater autonomy over a larger portion of education funding did not significantly improve students access to quality public education.

While the legislature has the sole authority and responsibility to raise revenue needed to deliver a quality public education, it continues to be the only substantive source of local funding for this purpose. Hawaii's future workforce, entrepreneurs, climate protectors, and problem-solvers depend on having the appropriate tools and resources needed to prepare them for a radically changing world.

Decades of teacher shortages underscore the lack of competitive wages to recruit and retain qualified teachers. Underfunded schools are not able to afford sufficient social workers and support staff, this has placed a greater responsibility on the few adults remaining in the school who have contact with students. Some high schools cannot afford to invest in teaching tools and technologies that will prepare students for the expanding marketplace. Some schools have let go of their college counselors, resulting in tens of millions of dollars of scholarships never being won by their college-bound students, who will lose opportunities or go on to be burdened with crippling student loans and interest.

The purpose of this Act is to require the State to raise and allocate sufficient funding to provide a quality public education to the students of Hawaii and to establish a base rate of funding allocation.

SECTION 2. Section 302A-1301, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

"§302A-1301 School system financial accountability[.] and budget baseline. (a) Beginning with the 1995-1997 fiscal biennium, the department's administrative expenditures shall not exceed 6.5 per cent of the total department operating budget, excluding expenditures for agencies administratively attached to the department, unless approved by the legislature.

(b) Not less than seventy per cent of appropriations for the total budget of the department, excluding debt service and capital improvement programs and appropriations for agencies administratively attached to the department, shall be expended by principals.

(c) No later than twenty days prior to the start of each legislative session, the department shall publish an annual report comparing the department's operating budget with the five school districts nationwide most comparable to the State with regard to the most recent consumer price index calculated and published by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics; provided that the comparison shall be calculated on a per-pupil basis.

(d) Beginning with the 2022-2023 school year, the department's annual operating budget shall be greater than or equal to the average of the operating budgets of the five school districts with the most comparable consumer price indices when calculated on a per-pupil basis."

SECTION 3. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

INTRODUCED BY:

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Report Title:

Full-Funding for Public Schools

Description:

Mandates the legislature to raise and allocate sufficient funding to provide a quality public education to the students of Hawaii. Establishes a base rate of funding allocation equal to at least the average of the operating budgets of the five school districts nationwide with the most comparable consumer price indices, most recently calculated by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, when calculated on a per-pupil basis.

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