STAND. COM. REP. NO. 330-22

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2022

RE: H.B. No. 1731

H.D. 1

Honorable Scott K. Saiki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2022

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Higher Education & Technology, to which was referred H.B. No. 1731 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII PROMISE PROGRAM,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to make higher education in Hawaii more accessible by:

(1) Expanding the Hawaii Promise Program to provide scholarships for the unmet direct cost needs of qualified undergraduate students enrolled at a four-year campus of the University of Hawai‘i; and

(2) Providing an appropriation to establish and implement the expanded program.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the University of Hawai‘i System, Kamehameha Schools, and one individual. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of the Attorney General and Department of Budget and Finance.

Your Committee finds that expanding the Hawaii Promise Program to qualified students in four-year degree programs at the University of Hawai‘i would significantly enhance the ability of community college students to transfer to a four-year program and increase the number of economically disadvantaged students who can earn a bachelor's degree from the University of Hawaii. Your Committee further finds that expansion of the Hawaii Promise Program would be a significant step toward broadening access to economic opportunities for Hawaii's students and developing the educated workforce the State will need to grow in the coming decades.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Noting that the subject matter of this measure is an issue of statewide concern;

(2) Changing its effective date to July 1, 2050, to encourage further discussion; and

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

Your Committee respectfully requests that should your Committee on Finance choose to hear this measure, it consider appropriating $19,000,000 for the Hawaii Promise Program, which would allow approximately four thousand six hundred students to obtain a four-year degree at the University of Hawai‘i System.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Higher Education & Technology that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1731, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1731, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Finance.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Higher Education & Technology,

____________________________

GREGG TAKAYAMA, Chair