STAND. COM. REP. NO. 248-26

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2026

RE: H.B. No. 2437

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 Culture & Arts, to which was referred H.B. No. 2437 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO ARTS EDUCATION,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds to the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts for the Artists in the Schools Program.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Education; State Foundation on Culture and the Arts; Hawaiʻi Community Foundation; and three individuals.

Your Committee finds that high-quality arts education is essential to student learning, supporting academic achievement, creative thinking, and social-emotional development. The Artists in the Schools Program, administered by the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, provides impactful arts instruction by placing professional artists directly into public and charter school classrooms and expands access to arts education for underserved students. This measure appropriates funds to support the continuation and expansion of the Artists in the Schools Program to ensure its ongoing delivery statewide.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Changing the appropriation to an unspecified amount; and

(2) Changing the effective date to July 1, 3000, to encourage further discussion.

Your Committee respectfully requests your Committee on Finance, should it deliberate on this measure, to consider an appropriation amount of $220,000.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Culture & Arts that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2437, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2437, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Finance.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Culture & Arts,

____________________________

JEANNE KAPELA, Chair