STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3367

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: H.B. No. 2437

H.D. 1

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2026

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Water, Land, Culture and the Arts and Education, to which was referred H.B. No. 2437, H.D. 1, entitled:

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

beg leave to report as follows:

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

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from Department of Education, Hawaiʻi State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, HULI PAC, Hawaiʻi Community Foundation, Prince Dance Company, Donkey Mill Art Center, Honolulu Theatre for Youth, Hawaiʻi Arts Alliance, Waihee Elementary School, and nineteen individuals.

Your Committees find that the Artists in the Schools Program of the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts (Program) provides meaningful arts education by embedding professional artists in classrooms of public and public charter schools. By appropriating more funds in support of the Program, this measure will further develop the creativity, critical thinking, and collaboration of the State's schoolchildren, empowering their future success in the workforce and their future engagement in civil society.

Your Committees have amended this measure by inserting an effective date of January 1, 3000, to encourage further discussion.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Water, Land, Culture and the Arts and Education that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2437, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2437, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Water, Land, Culture and the Arts and Education,

________________________________ DONNA MERCADO KIM, Chair

________________________________ CHRIS LEE, Chair