STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1315-22

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2022

RE: S.B. No. 2862

S.D. 1

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 Education, to which was referred S.B. No. 2862, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO EDUCATION,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds to the Department of Education for the installation of air conditioning in certain public school classrooms.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Education, Hawaii State Teachers Association, Democratic Party of Hawai‘i Education Caucus, and one individual. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Budget and Finance.

Your Committee finds that hot classroom temperatures in the State's public schools can adversely affect students by making them drowsy, irritable, and unmotivated. Additionally, studies show that while classroom temperatures over eighty degrees can negatively impact student achievement, temperatures in Hawaii's classrooms are regularly recorded at over one hundred degrees during certain periods of the school year.

Your Committee further finds that through Act 47, Session Laws of Hawaii 2016, the Legislature appropriated $100,000,000 for the Department of Education's heat abatement program. While the appropriation successfully funded heat abatement upgrades for over 1,300 public school classrooms, over 5,000 classrooms still require heat abatement improvements. This measure will appropriate funds for the installation of air conditioning in those classrooms that still require heat abatement improvements.

Your Committee has amended this measure by changing its effective date to July 1, 2051.

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. 2862, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2862, S.D. 1, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Finance.

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

____________________________

JUSTIN H. WOODSON, Chair