HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.C.R. NO.	116
THIRTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2023
STATE OF HAWAII

HOUSE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

URGING the committee on weights to recommend, and the board of education to adopt, a weighted student formula that gives greater consideration to small and remote schools.

WHEREAS, the State appreciates and values a funding system that adequately and equitably allocates funds to schools, thus ensuring that their unique budgetary needs are met, so they may provide students with the education that they deserve; and

WHEREAS, the Reinventing Education Act of 2004, established pursuant to Act 51, Session Laws of Hawaii 2004, established a weighted student formula that sought to distribute funds to schools fairly, based upon the number of students that the schools serve and the needs and characteristics of those students; and

WHEREAS, although the weighted student formula has fulfilled its goal of providing a more equitable, transparent, and decentralized method of funding schools, small and remote rural schools may still be underfunded; and

WHEREAS, all schools have specific minimum staffing needs to function properly; and

WHEREAS, small schools lack the student enrollment and the subsequent funding to adequately staff their schools under the current weighted student formula; and

WHEREAS, geographically isolated schools face additional challenges due to their distance from essential services; and

WHEREAS, a 2013 evaluation of the weighted student formula commissioned by the Department of Education and completed by the American Institutes of Research highlighted the disparity of funding between small and remote rural schools and other schools in the State; and

WHEREAS, the current weighted student formula must be reevaluated and revised to adequately account for the diseconomies of scale associated with small schools and the additional costs due to geographic location; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Thirty-second Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2023, the Senate concurring, that the Committee on Weights is urged to make a recommendation to the Board of Education that gives greater consideration to small and remote rural schools; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Board of Education is urged to adopt a weighted student formula that gives greater consideration to small and remote rural schools, based on the recommendation made by the Committee on Weights; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to Chairperson of the Board of Education, Superintendent of Education, and Chairperson of the Committee on Weights.

OFFERED BY:

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Report Title:

Board of Education; Committee on Weights; Weighted Student Formula; Small and Remote Schools