Bill Text: HI SR184 | 2024 | Regular Session | Introduced

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Bill Title: Requesting The Department Of Education To Require That Each Student Complete Two Years Of Hawaiian Language Instruction As A Graduation Requirement.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2024-03-14 - Referred to EDU/HWN. [SR184 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2024-SR184-Introduced.html

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THE SENATE	S.R. NO.	184
THIRTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2024
STATE OF HAWAII

SENATE RESOLUTION

 

 

requesting the Department of Education to require that each student complete two years of Hawaiian language instruction as a graduation requirement.

 

 

     WHEREAS, olelo Hawaii, the Hawaiian language, is the native language of the Native Hawaiian people; and

 

     WHEREAS, once spoken throughout Hawaii by Native Hawaiians and others, olelo Hawaii was considered to be nearly extinct by the 1980s, when fewer than fifty fluent speakers under the age of eighteen were left; and

 

     WHEREAS, a major reason for the deterioration of the Hawaiian language was an 1896 law that required English instruction in Hawaii schools; and

 

     WHEREAS, in practice, this law functioned to "ban" students from speaking olelo Hawaii at their schools; and

 

     WHEREAS, to save the Hawaiian language, a number of historic initiatives were launched, including Aha Punana Leo's Hawaiian language immersion preschools, the Department of Education's Hawaiian language immersion program, and the Hawaiian language programs of the University of Hawaii system; and

 

     WHEREAS, in 1978, the Hawaii State Constitution was amended to recognize the Hawaiian language as one of the two official languages of the State; and

 

     WHEREAS, several important gubernatorial proclamations on olelo Hawaii were issued in the 1990s, including in 1994 and 1995, gubernatorial proclamations, written in both Hawaiian and English, recognizing February 1994 and February 1995 as "Hawaiian Language Month in Hawaii"; and

 

     WHEREAS, while the Hawaiian language revitalization movement has made major strides in the last thirty years, for olelo Hawaii to not just survive, but to also thrive, more people need to speak Hawaiian; now, therefore,

 

     BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Thirty-second Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2024, that the Department of Education is requested to require that each student complete two years of Hawaiian language instruction as a graduation requirement; and

 

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

 

 

 

	OFFERED BY:	_____________________________

 

 

 

Report Title:

Olelo Hawaii; Hawaiian Language: DOE; Course Requirement; Graduation Requirement