STAND. COM. REP. NO. 500

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 692

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2023

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Education, to which was referred S.B. No. 692 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds to the Department of Education to support wide-ranging initiatives for student success.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Education and two individuals.

Your Committee finds that education enables Hawaii's children to develop skills essential for life, learn social norms, develop judgment and reasoning, and discern right from wrong. As educating the future generations of Hawaii is of paramount importance, it is incumbent upon current generations to adequately fund the Department of Education to enable the Department to continue to fulfill its commitment to developing the achievement, character, and social-emotional wellbeing of Hawaii's students to their full potential. Accordingly, this measure appropriates funds to the Department of Education for wide-ranging initiatives to fulfill its mission to educate Hawaii's keiki.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Inserting blank appropriation amounts for various Department of Education programs; and

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

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. 692, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 692, 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