STAND. COM. REP. NO. 95

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 1391

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2025

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Education, to which was referred S.B. No. 1391 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO EDUCATION,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds to the Department of Education for teacher-requested classroom supplies.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Education, Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Hawaiʻi State Teachers Association, and one individual.

Your Committee finds that Hawaii's teachers are some of the lowest paid educators in the United States. To supplement the activities in their classrooms, teachers often purchase art supplies, notebooks, and food for their students with their own money. In a January 2023 survey, the Hawaii State Teachers Association found that members spent an average of $953 out of pocket on school supplies per year. Presently, the Department of Education has a public-private partnership that provides teachers and students with financial resources to fund teacher-led projects in classrooms. Since 2007, this public-private partnership has funded 45,055 projects for 11,072 teachers, with 21,208 projects for 8,035 teachers funded by Department of Education funds. As the State's cost of living increases, this measure is estimated to help fund more than eight thousand more projects next year and will continue to support public education in the State while alleviating the financial burden on educators.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Changing the appropriation to an unspecified amount;

(2) Inserting an effective date of July 1, 2050, to encourage further discussion; and

(3) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

Your Committee notes that this measure, as amended, contains an unspecified appropriation amount. Should your Committee on Ways and Means choose to deliberate on this measure, your Committee respectfully requests that it consider inserting an appropriation amount of $3,000,000 for the purposes of this measure, including teacher-requested school supplies.

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. 1391, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1391, 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,

________________________________

MICHELLE N. KIDANI, Chair