STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2031

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 3209

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. 3209 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO TEACHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds for teacher professional development.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Education, State Public Charter Schools Commission, University of Hawai‘i System, and Hawaii State Teachers Association. Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Office of Collective Bargaining. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Budget and Finance.

Your Committee finds that professional development for teachers is a vital way of ensuring that our teachers can use the best, research-based educational practices within their classrooms. In particular, job‑embedded professional development can often prove to be more effective than stand-alone training sessions.

Your Committee notes that, according to the Office of Collective Bargaining, the professional development covered by this measure, prior to amendment, is subject to bargaining under chapter 86, Hawaii Revised Statutes.

Your Committee further finds that in the collectively-bargained agreement between the Board of Education and the Hawaii State Teachers Association that expired on June 30, 2021, there was a memorandum of understanding that allowed for twenty-one additional hours to be added to the teachers' workday without students. Those twenty-one hours were to be used for job‑embedded professional development to provide benefits, including a formalized structure for organizing training and learning time, reducing the need for substitute teachers, and eliminating teacher absences from classes for training. However, as noted by testimony, the memorandum of understanding expired on June 30, 2021, and was not renewed because funding was not available.

In light of the testimony received, your Committee finds that amendments are necessary to fund professional development for teachers that was previously agreed upon but not implemented. Your Committee notes that S.B. No. 3097 (Regular Session of 2022) is a substantially similar measure that also addresses the same funding needs for implementing teacher professional development.

Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Deleting its contents and inserting the contents of S.B. No. 3097, a substantially similar measure, which appropriates funds for fiscal year 2022-2023 for twenty-one additional hours of professional development for teachers to replace the hours that were lost when the memorandum of understanding expired on June 30, 2021;

(2) Making it effective on July 1, 2022; and

(3) 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 is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 3209, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 3209, 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