001Again, welcome to the Senate Committee on Education. Today is Friday, February 3rd. It is 3:00 3:20 p.m. and we are in hearing room 229. This meeting, including the audio and video of remote participants, is being streamed live on YouTube. You will find links to viewing options for all Senate meetings on the live and on demand video page of the legislaturator's website. This Zoom meeting and YouTube live stream event will include this 3:00 p.m. agenda for the Committee on Education. In the unlikely event that we must abruptly end this hearing due to major technical difficulties, the committee will reconvene to discuss any outstanding business on Monday, February 5th, 2023 at 3:00 p.m. in room 229. And a public notice will be posted on the legislaturator's website. And I'd like to take this time to remind our
002testifiers that due to time restrictions on our hearings, we will be limiting testimony to one minute per testifier per bill. For people participating remotely, please remain muted and video disabled until shortly before it is your turn to testify. When I call your name, unmute yourself and your time will begin. After your minute is completed, staff will mute you so that we can move this hearing along in an orderly and efficient manner. First on our agenda is Senate Bill 826 relating to school facilities authority and testifying is Lewis Salivaria, director budget and finance. Good afternoon chair uh Louis Salivia senators please come to the mic. Good afternoon chair. uh Louisis Salvia, director of department of budget and finance. You have our testimony providing comments. Uh again echoing uh some of the you know the comments that
003were provided by the LG. We support the bill but we would prefer or we would like the bill to be uh crafted in such a way where the deposit would be made in fiscal year 24 in order to uh address the issues associated with the maintenance of effort uh compliance issues. Thank you Senator. Thank you director Thank you very much. Next to testify, Chad Faras, executive director, school facilities agency. Good afternoon committee for school facilities authority. We stand by written testimony and support. Be available for questions. Thank you, Chad. And we have written testimony and support by three others. I believe that uh Lieutenant Governor wanted to testify on this bill and she will be back in a minute. Due to difficulties we've been having, she left for another hearing. Members, do you have any
004questions on this Senate bill 826? Thank you. Moving on, Senate Bill 7 relating to SC to the School Facilities Authority makes necessary amendments to clarify certain references to the school facilities authority used in section 302A-1151.1 of the Hawaii Revised Statutes to testify. Exe Executive Director Chad Faras, please. Afternoon again, Chair Kani, members of the committee, Chad Kun Fis facilities authority and we stand by written testimony and support and we'll be available for questions. Thank you, Chad. Members, any questions? Next on the agenda, Senate Bill 941 relating to the school facilities authority appropriates funds to the school facilities authority for the construction of teacher and educator housing to testify. Chad Faras, executive director, school facilities authority. Thank you. Good afternoon, Chair, members of the committee. Chad Kuni Fus, School Facilities Authority. We stand by our written
005testimony and support. Be available for questions. Thank you, Chad. And we also have one written testimony and support. Members questions. Sure. for I guess is the three minimum three sites. Do you know where the sites will be? Yeah, we've been in uh conversations with with three sites for this. You're asking for that. Yeah. And I believe three sites the first uh principal you talked to is at Nanukuli High School. We also reached out to Milani and Waku. Thank you. Chair, a quick question. Yeah, thank you, Chair. Um, are we looking at any neighbor island locations? Yeah, absolutely. Um, not initially in the pilot here, but we have been in conversation with neighbor island sites as well. Okay. Thank you. Thanks, chair. Thank you. Thank you, Chad. But what I would like to recommend uh senators
006if you know of um sites whether it be schools or others particularly state lands we would be u happy to pass that on to SFA. Sure. Oh, I mean you you can only reason why I bring this up is because um Gentry keep been working with um Hamo Elementary about the land and they keep going back to this park by the school which the community don't really care for park because the park and the school don't mix. We have Campbell High School and the community park problems already. So, at one time I know that there was on the books of thinking about doing teacher housing on um Kanui Drive in uh actually is that totally off the uh radar or they going to be considering it because I like know so that I can protest
007everything else that you're going to try to do on that property. I mean, excuse me, go against everything that it's it's absolutely on the radar. We didn't get any real um positive movement forward with that, but we can definitely reach back and we'll get you. Yeah, please. Because what I'm going to do is is I'm going to reach out to her because she came to the neighborhood board talk about how they going to build a park and my community is very upset because the things that I was talking with Ed Sniffen and some other groups was that possible fixing and maintaining a roads true uh teacher and um you know um teacher housing or housing for our teachers in that area. So yeah, we reach out provide you feedback. I'll give it Thank you. Thank
008you, chair again. Thank you. Moving on. Next, Senate Bill 832 relating to education. This authorizes the counties to transfer land to the school facilities authority. Exempts the school facilities authority from taxes. Authorizes state and county agencies to render services. Establishes a deadline for the transfer of properties to the department of education from the city and county of Honu required by act 272 session laws of Hawaii 2019 to testify and Horuchi. Good afternoon, Chair Kadani, members of the committee, Deputy Attorney General Anne Hyuchi. Um, as set forth in our testimony, we're just proposing um an amendment that we we believe will provide some clarity to the bill. I'll stand by for questions. Thank you. Thank you, Ann. Next to testify, Chad Faras, please. Good afternoon, chair, members of the committee. uh Chad Kun FIA School Facilities
009Authority. Uh we stand by our written testimony and support and we'll be available for questions also. Thank you. Sure. Question. If I'm understanding this, authorize it, but is there something that prohibits county transferring to state for education? Is that why we have to authorize this? Because I know we do intergovernment transfer already. So yeah, I think this is just specific language making it more explicit on what what authorities will be given to the SFA. Okay. Yeah. Right. Thank you. Thank you. Just just one because a lot of properties like I in my community, nobody knew that it belonged to the city until we started construction and realized it wasn't state land, it was city land. So that's why I guess this is I really love this bill and finally getting it done so that we
010can get some stuff done in our Ever Beach community. Great. Thank you. Further questions. Um, Attorney General, can you just uh for the senators here uh specify what your um recommended non-substantive changes are? Um with regard to um what is in the bill at on the first page, it's just providing um clarity to when uh there's a reference to the word it on line nine that we think should be changed to the county so it's clear that what we're referring what's being referred to. And then the same thing um following that where it says its purposes, we uh suggest changing it to the authorities purposes. Again, this is just to provide clarity. What line was that one? Uh, its purposes is on line 10. I see it. Yeah. And the it the other previous it
011is on line nine. Thank you for the members questions again. Moving on. Senator Bill relating to the early learning board amends the composition and qualifications of the early learning board to consist of individuals from each county instead of from particular entities or types of providers. Establishes general qualifications for the members of the early learning board appointed by the government to testify. Bob Peters, chair of the early learning board. Good afternoon, Chair Kadani and members of the committee. Um, I am Bob Peters, the chair of the early learning board and appreciate the opportunity to offer some comments on SB 1022 on behalf of the board. The board has not met yet to discuss this bill. It meets this coming Thursday. So, I'm only offering comments on some of the work that's been happening within the board.
012The governance subcommittee of the board is currently engaged in investigating governance models, including the type of option presented in the bill along with public board best governance practices to identify an effective governing model and composition. Specifically, it's trying to determine a governance model that combines the value inherent in stakeholder and provider participation with the needs of effective governance and to define the roles, responsibilities, and duties of the governing board members to effectively move the state early childhood plan forward and build an early childhood system. We appreciate that. Let um doing uh any recommendation at this meeting and we'll bring this back at a later time for us to wait um for that um meeting minutes. How long does it take you to get minutes out? It's usually about two to three weeks, but we can
013probably fast track those. Okay. Well, we'll we will put this back on the agenda before the end of February. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you, Bob. Okay. And the last item on our agenda is Senate Bill 1022 relating to early learning. Again, this is appropriates money for the preschool open doors program and executive office on early learning to expand access to preschool and to implement program changes required by previous acts. Expands the types of entities from which a preschool open door service provider may obtain accreditation. authorizes the preschool open door special fund to accept federal funds appropriates funds to testify. Lieutenant Governor Sylvia Luke, this is on Senate Bill 1023. Thank you. I'm sorry. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, members. uh in strong support of this bill. Uh right now um in order for
014us to provide um preschool access to both three and four year olds, we would need statutory revisions in both uh EOEL and preschool open doors to open the access to three-year-olds. Right now both uh executive office of early learning and um preschool open doors only have statutory authority to provide um preschool services for four year olds. And as you know uh in the private sector we pres when we talk about preschools is really three and four year olds. So this will open up um access to a lot more families. uh the amount that is uh in this budget or or in this bill for preschool open doors, it will provide opportunities for a lot more low-income families by not just increasing um access to three-year-olds, but increasing subsidies given to um families. Um you probably
015know that, you know, preschool is not cheap anymore. It's about um you know instead of having it $500 or $600, people are spending $1,500 and $1,500 a month is equivalent to somebody's rent. So it's really forcing families to decide whether they're going to pay rent that month or pay for childcare services. Um so those are the things that um are encompassed in this bill among many others. So, thank you for your consideration and uh we urge the committee for strong support of this effort as well. Mahalo. Thank you. Members, are there questions of the lieutenant governor? Why you guys scared? No. Thank you, Madam Lieutenant Governor. Next to testify, Kathy Betts, director of Department of Human Services. Good afternoon, chair and committee members. Scott Nakasoni representing Department of Human Services. Uh department um supports this
016bill and has provided comments and I'm here to answer any questions uh should we have any. Thank you members. Any questions for Scott? Thank you. Next to testify, Bob Peters, chair of the early learning board. Your learning board standard testing. Thank you, Bob. Next to testify, Koku Ritz, director, Hawaii Children's Action Network Speaks. Aloha chair, members of the committee. Um, Kurilitz, director of early learning with the Hawaii Children's Action Network speaks. Um you have our testimony. I know there's pretty extensive comments so I won't go over them one by one. Um but I did want to highlight one of the things that we are in support of is the idea of universal access. But for us we want to make sure that that access is meaningful for families. And one of the largest as the
017lieutenant governor mentioned one of the largest barriers for families and I can speak from experience as a mom of three kids is cost. And so we're in very strong support of increasing access for preschool open doors and investment in preschool open doors and want to make sure that it is accessible to everyone because when we think about universal particularly when it comes to price we're looking at very low cost or no cost to most families. And so this is one option to do that. We also have comments on the um expansion of executive office on early learning um providing services for three-year-olds. Um, I'll leave those to you, but again, just want to make sure that whenever we're going to expand to three-year-olds or to any children that we're doing so in a way that
018is developmentally appropriate and I'm here for any questions. Thank you, Koko members questions. Thank you. Next to testify, Vivian Itto for Children Action Strategy. Good afternoon, Chair Kadani and members of the committee. Um I'm Vivian Etto and I'm here on behalf of Early Childhood Action Strategy um in support of Senate Bill 1023. Um you have our written testimony, so I just wanted to highlight a few things. uh mainly that uh we are very in very strong support of the expansion of preschool open doors. We think it's a critical strategy to expanding access not only to uh well expanding access to our community-based programs which can serve the different needs of children and families in numerous ways that go beyond uh the public preschool classrooms that are available. Um, so we think it's an important two-prong
019strategy to support both classroom expansion and subsidy for our families. And we really hope that you will support uh sort of public preschool access in a diversity of ways with a healthy um support for expansion of preschool open doors. Uh and then with regards to the potential expansion of Executive Office of Early Learning to three-year-olds, uh we just respectfully request consideration of the additional supports and resources you meet developmentally appropriate health and safety and uh quality standards for the younger age group. Thank you for the opportunity to testify and please know I'm available for any questions. Thank you, Vivian. Members, questions? If not, moving on. Yuku Aria Cross testifying for executive office on early learning. Aloha Chair Kirani and members of the committee. I'm Yuko Aiko Cross, director of the Executive Office on Early Learning.
020Thank you for offering offering the opportunity to testify in support of this bill. We appreciate the legislator's intent to increase and expand options to affordable early learning programs and services across Hawaii. This bill amends chapter 302 L7 to expand the EO public prek program to enroll three-year-olds. So, we are requesting amendments to chapter 302 L7 to include three-year-olds in pertinent sections as outlined specifically in our testimony. We look forward to continuing our work with the legislature and other partners to increase universal access for our youngest kei. Thank you for the opportunity to testify and I'm happy to answer any of your questions. Thank you. You members questions. Thank you very much. We have written testimony from a number of people in support. Sher Nakamura, Carrie Urosvich, Dr. Wy Ali, Ali Sarona, Calbertt Young, and Erica
021Molenu. Okay, members, if there are no questions, we are moving on to the next bill. Are you registered? Please come forward. Yeah. Yeah, next time you have to register. One time pass. All right. I didn't realize that. Whoops. Good afternoon, chair and members of the committee. My name is Linda Elento and um anyway, just briefly, I am a parent and I am now a grandparent and this bill has been really important to me. My very first testimony to the um legislature was almost 20 years ago um regarding preschool open doors. So I strongly um support funding and personally I certainly appreciate it. I just wanted to bring up a couple of comments if you would consider because this is a statute that also requires um accreditation and it very in section 346-184 it specifies the
022national early childhood types of accreditation and I know the purpose it seems to be for this bill is adding three-year-olds. It's my understanding that three-year-olds, at least in the special needs, have been granted the particular um type of grants that are provided under preschool open doors. But this seems to um counteract what the Department of Education has been doing with special education and so forth. What I like to see is that children with disabilities would be able to access also these preschool open doors without being told they're already served in the DOE. And so the co the words that have caught my eye in this particular statute are the the words underserved and it's very subjective as well as um looking at the age if we could just somehow make it simple three-year-olds are included
023because 5-year-olds aren't mentioned here but for instance ch because the kindergarten age was changed a few years back at the pet office in July 31. So for children who turn three in August, such as my grandson, he now faces three full years in preschool when I strongly believe he will be ready for kindergarten when he's 5 years old. You'll be turning five matter of a couple weeks after that cuto off age. So those are my concerns and I'll finish with this. I'd like to ask that you also as a committee consider the fact that the accredititations that are listed as well as the I believe subjective um allowance for the director of human services to decide what's um appropriate for our kids. One that's missing is the ASI ACSI. It's association of Christian schools international.
024I believe the committee should consider listing it here because we definitely have the potential of our state continue or would cons could perceivably say no to the preschools who are part of churches. They have faith-based standards through the ACSI. It's a very rigorous um accredititation program internationally and right now our preschool open doors do allow for that particular accreditation. So my concern even though like for the House of Human Services Committee heard a similar bill yesterday um basically they're just continuing delaying the act the activation of this particular measure that was passed back in 20120 amended in 21. So because of the pandemic I kind of lost sight of this particular issue but it certainly got my attention um this year. And I'll finish with this. There's a Supreme Court decision that was made this
025last June. Um, US Supreme Court Carson versus Min Ki N. It um the Supreme Court came back and said that um Maine, the state of Maine's ban on um state funding for private Christian schools or religious schools in particular um that was against religious claims and constitution as well as the first amendment. I appreciate your attention to these concerns. Um I strongly believe there's no problem with um funds being given to Christian schools even with the form of a grant or whatever type of funding that you consider as a state. Thank you, Linda. Nice to see you again. Nice to see you. Members, questions? If not, recess. reconvening the committee on education. So the chair and members of the committee are recommending that we pass Senate Bill 826 relating to the school facilities authority as
026is. We will also be passing out Senate Bill 7 relating to school facilities authority as Okay, we'll wait till you catch up. Yeah. So, The first two are as is 826 as is seven. Okay. On Senate Bill 941 relating to school facilities. Recommendation of the chair is to specify that teacher and workforce housing pilot shall be at the three identified locations by the school facilities authority which are Nanakuli High and Intermediate W Pahu and Milani high schools. Also providing the F SFA with the authority to partner with public and private development agencies to develop the teacher housing pilot sites. also to provide SFA with the authority to transfer any funds appropriated in this bill to state partners to effectuate the purpose of this bill. And finally noting in the committee report that the intention of
027this is to provide housing for teachers but acknowledging that should vacancies occur, the SFA should be empowered to offer those units to eligible educators. Chair, do we want to vote on the first ones first or do you want to keep No, let me let me go through all of them and then we'll vote. Sorry. No. And then Senate Bill 832 relating to education. Uh this is a authorizing the counties to transfer land to the school facilities authority. We're going to defer this one to February 13th, 2023 at 3:00 p.m. in this conference room 229. We also are going to defer Senate Bill 10:22 technical um I'm sorry, Senate Bill 10:22 relating to early learning board. also deferring until February 13, 2023 at 3 PM in this room 229. Senate bill 1023 relating to early learning
028which appropriates money for the preschool open door programs and executive office on early learning expand to preschool and to implement program changes required by previous acts. We are also going to defer this bill to February at 3:00 p.m. in room this room 229. Okay. So members for the vote. I was stalling to see if was coming back but with three members present. Chair is recommending to pass out Senate Bill 8.26 26 as is. Chair votes I. Chair votes I. Vice chair is excused. I vote I. Senator Richards I. Senator Favlla is excused. Chair, you have three eyes. Recommendations adopted. Thank you for Senate Bill 7 relating to the school facilities facilities authority. Recommendation of the chair is to pass as is. Chair votes I. Chair votes I. Vice chair is excused. I vote I. Hi,
029Senator Richards. Hi. Senator Favlla is excused. Chair, you have three eyes. Recommendations adopted. Thank you for Senate Bill 941 relating to the school facilities authority. The recommendation of the chair is to pass with these amendments to specify that the teacher and workforce housing pilot shall be at the identified locations provided the SFA providing the SFA with the authority to partner with public and private development agencies. providing the SFA with the authority to transfer any funds appropriated in this bill to state partners. And finally noting in the committee report, the intention of this is to provide housing for teachers, but should vacancies occur, the SFA should be empowered to offer those units to other educators. Recommendation of the chair is to pass Senate Bill 941. Chair votes I with amendments. Chair votes I. Vice chair is
030excused. I vote I. Senator Richards I. Senator Flla I. Chair you have four eyes. Recommendations adopted. Thank you. For Senate Bill 832 recommend. This is relating to education. The recommendation is to um defer this bill to February 13. I'm sorry. 3:00 p.m. in this conference room 229 on Senate Bill 1022 technical I'm sorry to relating to early learning board recommendation of this chair is to also defer this bill for decision making until February 130 p.m. in this conference room 229. And finally, Senate Bill 10:23 relating to early learning. Recommendation of the chair is also to defer this bill to February 13th at 3 p.m. in this conference room 229. With that, this meeting is adjourned.