STAND. COM. REP. NO. 97

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 440

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. 440 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO EDUCATION,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

(1) Establish the Future Career and Technical Education Teacher Scholarship Program to be administered by the Department of Education to facilitate the recruitment and retention of career and technical education teachers in Hawaii public schools;

(2) Establish the Future Career and Technical Education Teacher Scholarship Special Fund; and

(3) Appropriate funds.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Education, Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Chamber of Commerce Hawaii, Democratic Party of Hawaiʻi, and one individual.

Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Budget and Finance; Department of the Attorney General; and Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism.

Your Committee finds that career and technical education prepares students for future professional opportunities utilizing innovative, industry-standard equipment. Many professions that are within career and technical education programs are facing a critical shortage of educators. Further, highly qualified educators who are eligible to teach certain career and technical education courses encounter barriers with obtaining the prerequisite certification, costing teachers thousands of dollars in tuition fees. Therefore, this measure prepares the next generation of the State's workforce while ensuring adequate staffing for innovative educational opportunities for students.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Requiring recipients of the Future Career and Technical Education Teacher Scholarship to obtain a license from the Hawaii Teacher Standards Board;

(2) Inserting an unspecified appropriation amount;

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

(4) 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 $600,000 for the establishment of the Future Career and Technical Education Teacher Scholarship Program.

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. 440, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 440, 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