STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2226

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 3091

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2022

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Education, to which was referred S.B. No. 3091 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO OPTIONS FOR STUDENTS IN DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION SCHOOLS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

(1) Broaden the scope of profit-making operations students may engage in at public schools to include commercial enterprises, while ensuring that engagement in commercial enterprises shall be related to the primary educational purposes of the school, career pathway, academy, or program; and

(2) Allow students who engage in commercial enterprises at public schools to receive school credit, compensation, or both.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Education and one individual.

Your Committee finds that existing law is unclear and overly restrictive regarding the commercial activities that students may engage in at public schools. Your Committee finds that commercial undertakings, in certain circumstances, provide valuable workforce education and skills development. This is particularly true for the agricultural industry.

Your Committee also finds that allowing students to engage in certain commercial activities at school fosters the development of the confidence and entrepreneurial spirit necessary to tackle many of the State's most challenging issues in the future.

Accordingly, this measure clarifies that students may engage in profit-making commercial operations at public schools, under rules established by the Department of Education, and may receive school credit, monetary compensation, or both, as a result of their participation in such activities.

Your Committee has amended this measure by 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. 3091, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 3091, 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,

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MICHELLE N. KIDANI, Chair