STAND. COM. REP. NO. 178

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2025

RE: H.B. No. 1496

H.D. 1

Honorable Nadine K. Nakamura

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2025

State of Hawaii

Madame:

Your Committee on Education, to which was referred H.B. No. 1496 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO EDUCATION,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to:

(1) Establish the position of Ka Papahana Kaiapuni program complex area superintendent;

(2) Require that at least one at-large member of the Board of Education be a Hawaiian educator, practitioner, or scholar of Hawaiian studies or the Hawaiian language;

(3) Clarify the purpose and objective of the Hawaiian Language Medium Education Program; and

(4) Appropriate funds for the establishment of:

(A) The Ka Papahana Kaiapuni program complex area superintendent; and

(B) A secretary position to support the Ka Papahana Kaiapuni program complex area superintendent.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaiʻi State Teachers Association; ʻAha Kauleo; ʻAha Pūnana Leo; Nā Leo Kākoʻo Oʻahu; and numerous individuals. Your Committee received testimony in support of the intent of this measure from the Department of Education. Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from one individual. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Board of Education.

Your Committee finds that ʻolelo Hawaii, or the Hawaiian language, is an officially recognized language of the State. Your Committee further finds that in 2004, Hawaiian language immersion was codified in the Hawaii Revised Statutes. The Ka Papahana Kaiapuni programs provide bicultural and bilingual education, emphasizing Hawaiian language, history, and values. As of the 2024-2025 school year, the Ka Papahana Kaiapuni programs serve over three thousand four hundred students at twenty-nine public schools; however, despite the success of these programs, your Committee recognizes the importance of providing further support and recognition to these programs.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Changing the effective date to July 1, 3000; and

(2) Making a technical, nonsubstantive amendment for the purposes of clarity, consistency, and style.

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 H.B. No. 1496, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1496, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs.

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

____________________________

JUSTIN H. WOODSON, Chair