Bill Text: HI HR116 | 2016 | Regular Session | Introduced

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Bill Title: Department of Education; Comprehensive Report; Public School Funding

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2016-03-29 - Report adopted; referred to the committee(s) on FIN with none voting aye with reservations; none voting no (0) and Representative(s) Har, Ing, Kong, Luke, Saiki, Thielen, Tokioka excused (7). [HR116 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2016-HR116-Introduced.html

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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.R. NO.	116
TWENTY-EIGHTH LEGISLATURE, 2016
STATE OF HAWAII

HOUSE RESOLUTION

 

 

requesting the department of education to provide the legislature with a comprehensive report on public school funding.

 

 

 

     WHEREAS, the Department of Education oversees the only statewide school district in the United States; and

 

     WHEREAS, a Ballotpedia analysis of per-pupil expenditures in the United States' largest school districts ranked Hawaii 227th in per-pupil funding without adjusting for the cost of living; and

 

     WHEREAS, Hawaii has the lowest per-pupil funding amount in the nation when adjusted for the cost of living; and

 

     WHEREAS, Hawaii has the highest per capita private school enrollment in the nation; and

 

     WHEREAS, Hawaii's major private schools average $15,173 in per-pupil spending without including endowments -- a figure that rises to $19,173 when parochial schools subsidized by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu are excluded; and

 

     WHEREAS, the State spends $11,823 per pupil for both general and special education students, but roughly half as much as private schools when only general education students are taken into account; and

 

     WHEREAS, Hawaii ranks last in the nation in capital improvement funding per student, spending approximately $300 per student on capital improvements, compared to mainland averages of $1,200 to $1,500 per student; and

     WHEREAS, Hawaii ranked 51st out of 50 states and the District of Columbia in starting and median teacher salaries adjusted for cost of living, according to a study performed by WalletHub.com; and

 

     WHEREAS, Hawaii has one of the highest teacher turnover rates in the nation, losing approximately 50 percent of the State's teaching workforce every five years; and

 

     WHEREAS, Hawaii's public school campuses are over 65 years old on average and contain nearly 7,000 classrooms that lack air conditioning or other heat abatement technology, despite classroom temperatures that regularly exceed 90 degrees during the school year; and

 

     WHEREAS, increasing funding for public education would upgrade school infrastructure, assist in the recruitment and retention of effective teachers, and increase student achievement; now, therefore,

 

     BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-eighth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2016, that the Department of Education is requested to provide the Legislature with a comprehensive report on public school funding; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the report must evaluate methods of improving funding for public education and, at a minimum, include the following:

 

     (1)  A district-to-district comparison of per-pupil spending, including capital improvement project costs, between Hawaii's statewide school district and mainland school districts of similar sizes and with similar costs of living;

 

     (2)  A district-to-district comparison of teacher salaries between Hawaii's statewide school district and mainland school districts of similar sizes and with similar costs of living;

     (3)  Changes to the weighted student formula to promote fiscal equity throughout the Department of Education, including the use of categorical allotments for rural schools and increased funding for special education;

 

     (4)  Progress in providing air conditioning to all public school classrooms, including the amount of funding needed to provide air conditioning or other heat abatement strategies to all classrooms;

 

     (5)  Budgetary projections to reduce class size for public elementary, middle and intermediate, and high schools to no more than 20 students for any elementary school class and no more than 26 students for any middle, intermediate, or high school class, except band, orchestra, choir, or theater;

 

     (6)  Funds needed to staff all applicable public schools with a librarian, technology coordinator, vice principal, counselor, and special education transition coordinator;

 

     (7)  Funds to increase arts and Native Hawaiian educational programming throughout the Department of Education;

 

     (8)  Funds needed to expand vocational, technical, and career pathway programming to at least one high school in every school complex area, including cost estimates for any necessary personnel;

 

     (9)  Funds needed to align teacher salary steps with years of service, including the number of teachers whose salary steps are not aligned with years of service and budgetary projections for providing annual step increases to all teachers beginning with the 2017-2018 school year; and

 

    (10)  Information on strategies for minimizing administrative costs and departmental overhead expenses; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Department of Education is requested to submit the report, including any proposed legislation, to the Legislature no later than 20 days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2017; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Chairperson of the Board of Education, and Superintendent of Education.

 

 

 

	OFFERED BY:	_____________________________

Report Title:

Department of Education; Comprehensive Report; Public School Funding