STAND. COM. REP. NO. 94

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 529

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. 529 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 its Hoakea Program.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Education, Mālama Learning Center, E Ala Voyaging Academy, Polynesian Voyaging Society, Hui O Waʻa Kaulua, Kānehunāmoku Voyaging Academy, and six individuals.

Your Committee finds that "Hoakea: Mauka to Makai Navigating our Future" is a statewide initiative by the Department of Education to connect students with their local communities. Through the integration of science, culture, and aina-based (place-based) learning, Hoakea offers a transformative approach to learning that takes students outside of formal classroom settings. Therefore, this measure inspires students to engage with their local communities while offering local organizations committed to aina, Native Hawaiian culture, and history the opportunity to exhibit community resilience.

Your Committee notes the testimony of the Department of Education regarding the current implementation plan for the Hoakea Program. Presently, one thousand three hundred teachers have been trained under the program. While the Department of Education is pursuing an internal training pipeline to train educators, additional funding is needed to offer students aina-based experiences that cannot be replicated in the classroom. As the Department of Education has a mandate to provide high quality education to all students in the public education system, ensuring integration of the Hoakea Program's curriculum into existing Department of Education lesson plans will ensure all students have the opportunity to engage in an innovative learning experience. Therefore, your Committee encourages the Department of Education to seek integration of Hoakea programming with existing curriculum to promote the mission of aina-based learning while ensuring fiscal efficiency.

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 $4,000,000 for the operation and continuation of the Hoakea 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. 529, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 529, 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