STAND. COM. REP. NO. 499-26

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2026

RE: H.B. No. 1778

H.D. 1

Honorable Nadine K. Nakamura

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2026

State of Hawaii

Madame:

Your Committee on Education, to which was referred H.B. No. 1778 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO SCHOOL MODERNIZATION,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to require and appropriate funds for the School Facilities Authority to establish a school modernization initiative through a capital improvement project planning database for school facilities statewide.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the School Facilities Authority; Hawaiʻi State Teachers Association; Hawaii Government Employees Association, AFSCME Local 152, AFL-CIO; Hawaiʻi Children's Action Network Speaks!; and seven individuals. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Education.

Your Committee finds that construction is historically expensive in Hawaii and the construction industry has faced challenges related to the lingering impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The amount of money the State spends on school-related construction and the reasons for such spending need to be informed and justified. Your Committee believes that the school modernization initiative proposed by this measure will help inform spending and prioritization of capital improvement projects for school facilities in the State.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Changing the appropriations to unspecified amounts;

(2) Changing the effective date to July 1, 3000; and

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

Your Committee respectfully requests your Committee on Finance, should it deliberate on this measure, to consider an appropriation amount of $4,000,000 to be deposited into and appropriated out of the School Facilities Special Fund to establish the school modernization initiative.

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 H.B. No. 1778, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1778, 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