Bill Text: HI SB821 | 2012 | Regular Session | Introduced

Hawaii Senate Bill 821 (Prior Session Legislation)

Introduced

Bill Title: Weighted Student Formula; Exception; Remote Schools

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 13-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2011-12-01 - Carried over to 2012 Regular Session. [SB821 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2012-SB821-Introduced.html

THE SENATE	S.B. NO.	821
TWENTY-SIXTH LEGISLATURE, 2011
STATE OF HAWAII

A BILL FOR AN ACT

RELATING TO EDUCATION.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that the Reinventing Education Act of 2004 (Act 51, Session Laws of Hawaii 2004) established a weighted student formula to allocate moneys to schools according to the different costs of educating students with different needs. Despite the intended equitable distribution of funds, the legislature finds that the weighted student formula has placed small, remote schools at a disadvantage. In the case of Hana high school and elementary, the budgetary shortfall resulted in the loss of several well-qualified teachers and threatened the school's ability to offer minimum course requirements for students to earn high school diplomas in 2010. If Hana high school is unable to offer its students the requisite courses for graduation, those students will have to endure a nearly forty-mile, two-hour drive away to the next closest public high school, King Kekaulike high school.

The legislature finds that despite the current economic situation, remote schools should be funded to retain the minimal personnel and resources necessary to graduate students. As of 2005, six schools were excepted from weighted student formula allocations, receiving instead categorical allotments that guarantee the minimum number of positions and amount of resources to ensure that school operations can continue.

The purpose of this Act is to require that funding allocations for remote schools be determined by categorical allotments rather than the weighted student formula.

SECTION 2. Section 302A-1303.6, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

"§302A-1303.6 Weighted student formula. (a) Based upon recommendations from the committee on weights, the board of education, not less than annually, shall adopt a weighted student formula for the allocation of moneys to public schools that takes into account the educational needs of each student. The department, upon the receipt of appropriated moneys, shall use the weighted student formula to allocate funds to public schools[.]; provided that a remote school, as defined in subsection (b), and other schools designated by the committee on weights shall not be allocated operating funds using the weighted student formula and shall instead be allocated operating funds by categorical allotments that guarantee the funding of a minimum number of instructional positions to ensure that at least minimum course requirements are maintained. Principals shall expend moneys provided to the principals' schools. This section shall only apply to charter schools for fiscal years in which the charter schools elect [~~pursuant to section 302B-13~~] to receive allocations according to the weighted student formula[.] pursuant to section 302B-13.

(b) For purposes of this section, "remote school" means any public school, as defined in section 302A-101, that is a high school:

(1) Located at least a one-hour drive away from the next nearest public high school; or

(2) Located on the island of Lanai, Molokai, or Niihau;

provided that if a high school is combined with an elementary, middle, intermediate, or other lower level of schooling, that entire school shall be deemed a high school for the purposes of this subsection."

SECTION 3. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2011.

INTRODUCED BY:	_____________________________

Report Title:

Weighted Student Formula; Exception; Remote Schools

Description:

Requires remote schools to be allocated funds using categorical allotments, rather than through the weighted student formula. Defines a remote school as any public school that is a high school located at least a one-hour drive away from the next nearest high school or a high school located on the island of Lanai, Molokai, or Niihau.

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