House Standing Committee on Education

Good afternoon. This Joint Committee is on Higher and Lower Education. Today's date is March the 18th. It's 2 o' clock PM and we are in conference room 309. We have one Bill on the agenda today.

First up, SB 1585 SD1. This is with regards to workforce development and P-20. First up we have is DOE providing comments in person.

Sorry. Aloha Chair Woodson, Vice Chair La Chica, Chair Garrett and Vice Chair Amato and Members of the Committee. I'm Teri Ushijima, Assistant Superintendent from the Office of Curriculum and Instructional Design, testifying on Behalf of the Department of Education.

The Department stands on its written testimony which provides comments on this measure. Thank you for the opportunity to testify.

Thank you for being here. Next we have AG's office offering testimony in person, offering comments.

Good afternoon Chairs, Vice Chairs. Deputy Attorney General Candace Park. We just want to point out that federal funds cannot lapse to the General Fund but have to be returned to the Federal Government. Available for questions. Thank you.

Thank you. We received your testimony. Thank you for being here. Next we have DHRD offering testimony and support in person.

Good afternoon, chairs. Vice Chairs. I'm Brenna Hashimoto, Director of DHRD. We will stand on our written testimony and support and just want to add that we are supportive of this endeavor and and are eager to contribute to P-20's efforts in any way that we can. Thank you.

Thank you, Director. Next, we have Budget and Finance, B&F, offering comments. Not present. We have DBEDT offering comments. We have University of Hawaii offering comments in person Not present. And then we have P-20 offering comments in person.

Good afternoon, Chairs and Vice Chairs. Stephen Schatz, Executive Director of Hawaii P-20 and also the State Director of CTE. We've submitted some comments.

We appreciate the intent of the Bill. There are some specifics that we have some concerns about and we have expressed in our submitted testimony. But happy to have a conversation or answer questions as is your pleasure.

Okay, thank you, Director. That's all I have on my list. Anyone else? SB 1585. Seeing none, Members are there any questions?

Question.

Vice Chair.

AG, please.

Mahalo, Deputy for submitting testimony. So your testimony comments on the section that would lapse the unspent funds, federal funds back to the General Funds. But what would be your position on how some of the funds could be transfer-

Federal funds already appropriated to P-20 to be transferred to other state departments if though there are current restrictions, you know, currently how it's allocated in the current grant, Perkins Grant.

We. I mean of course the federal grant is going to come with restrictions. We're not, we did not make any comments with respect to the federal grant because we're not familiar with the grant, we don't work with the grant.

So, you know, of course you would want to make sure that whatever you do with the funds are within the restrictions, but we cannot speak to whether or not the Bill is in alignment with the Perkins funds because we do not have any knowledge or familiarity with the fund.

Okay, thank you so much. P-20, Please.

Director, if you can respond, maybe share a little bit about the Perkins funding and then how it's currently allocated and would the, should this Bill pass, how would it impact the allocations as it currently stands?

So currently we receive about $7 million through the Perkins Act. We receive those monies and then we essentially we split up 85% of It5050 between the UH community college system and then the Hawaii High schools for their CTE programming.

So while we're the recipients of the money and in a lot of ways we're, we're a pass through and from a fiscal perspective. We do facilitate the creation of a plan for the state that's a collaborative effort that we do with our partners.

Currently our main partners, those who are the local applicants for the CTE funds are the University of Hawaii Community College System and the Department of Education and then a tiny small percentage for Department of Corrections. But it's all for educational programming. Right. So it's.

While it's CTE is intended to align with workforce needs, it's also, it's an educational program from U.S. Education Department and it's for, for the purposes of educational achievement and attainment. And so that's the current way that it works right now. Not, not sure what would, what would happen if, if this passed.

I think I said to the Senate Higher Ed as well that, you know, the Bill itself, we totally understand the intent and we want to do a better job of aligning with workforce needs. I think the challenge comes with that it is conditioning an existing pot of funds with that has its own requirements and it doesn't have a state level appropriation.

So this current Bill, it currently doesn't. So you, the current Perkins federal funds that you have, what would it would what's written into this Bill add to, I guess as you're mentioning, like either prescribing or conditioning additional work than what's already being done.

What would this Bill do with the current federal funds that you have? And is this something federally could, you know, would this be even be allowed?

I'm not sure. I'm not a lawyer. Right. I'm not sure the answer to that question. I will say there are certain metrics that we're required to report on for the Federal Government. Some of them may align with the metrics alluded to in this Bill, but some of them may not.

A lot of them are student achievement metrics like test scores, graduation rate, college going rate, not outcomes in workforce or filling jobs. Right. So while that's sort of an aspirational goal, the CTE funds themselves are for educational purposes. So a lot of our work is actually about aligning between high school and college programs and the workforce needs.

But, you know, like asking whether or not Kapolei High School's kids in the auto mechanic program end up in our workforce and then conditioning those funds would be challenging.

Okay. Okay. Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Vice Chair. Members, Any other questions? Go ahead.

Go ahead, Chairman. For Steve, as the pass through of the Perkins funding, have there been times where you've actually returned money to the feds or have you spent it down to the last dollar?

I do not know of a time that - I've been the Director since July of 21. I do not know of a time that we've returned funds. One of the things that we're excited about is that collectively we've been talking amongst ourselves, which, meaning...

...meaning DOE and UH and those on the team about those funds that are reserved or, or that don't get spent repurposing those in a way that's requires more alignment with workforce needs in the state.

I think we talked a little bit about that in our testimony, but it's not exactly performance metric or performance funding in the way that UH has it where you after the fact, reward with money. It's more gas in the tank for schools and community colleges who want to create programs that align with workforce needs.

So it's more of a proactive way to use those funds, but it is in the spirit of aligning with workforce needs as opposed to having full flexibility at the school level.

Thank you. Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Chairman. Members, any other questions? A quick question for DOE and then also P-20, but DOE first.

Should I stay up here?

Yes, please. Okay. Thank you for being here. Your test, your testimony indicates that there are currently 13 CTE pathways that you have identified that are in areas of high need. What are some of those examples? And did you work with P-20 on pinpointing any of those subject matters or areas?

If I can ask Troy to come up and explain this, but we did work on a collaborative process. And Troy was there when it was first established.

If you can state your full name and then also like your title.

Troy Sueoka, Educational Specialist for Career and Technical Education for the Hawaii Department of Education. So about four years ago, we started off with six pathways currently.

And then as we looked at our labor force data, our needs of our state and where we were moving, we felt that the six pathways actually wasn't sufficient. And we had to expand into 13 to make sure we meet emerging industries, things like energy.

We have pathway on advanced manufacturing, which is new. We included law and public safety, ones that were very high demand and also really looking into the future of where we're going to go as a state. So incorporating those types of industries in our new pathways to better prepare our students for those future occupations.

And how did you identify those pathways?

We looked at, like I said, labor market data within Hawaii. We looked at things, sources like higher net, you know, where are jobs, where are people hiring. We also spoke with industry and we worked with our post secondary partners.

Within our pathways, we have these pathway advisory councils that. Are made up of industry partnerships, our industry partners, postsecondary, and representatives from the K12 system, our DOE system, and they all advise on our standards for all of our pathway courses that we're offering.

And did P-20 assist with that?

Yes, P-20 did assist with that at the beginning.

Okay, thank you so much. I guess a question for P-20 while you're up there. Thank you so much for staying in your involvement in this. The Bill, I mean, your testimony had quite a bit of information in it.

And just to oversimplify, so part of the proposal, it says that we are as a state conditioning federal funds coming into the state, defined as there are certain parameters around that money coming in. I have not seen something like that before in our state. But is that something that you have seen perhaps?

I have not seen. Let me think about that. I have not seen state law that conditions a federal grant program.

You have not seen it. And so you might not know the answer to this question, but have you seen any states or jurisdictions that can that conditions federal funds, particularly like Perkins funds coming into state or jurisdiction?

I do not know of any. And we did do a reach out to the Association of Career and Technical Educator. Is that what it's called? Thank you. Association for Career and Technical Education. We asked them that question. We're like, have you guys seen anything like this? And they had not.

And that's not to say that, you know, it was a conversation we had. It wasn't a formal request and it wasn't a formal review, but. But it would be, at a minimum, you, at a minimum, unique. Yeah.

Adding stipulations to federal funds is something that might be unique. And so in your testimony, you also said that you wanted to do a better job of alignment. Can you expound upon what you meant by that?

Yeah, I think two ways. Right. One is what we're in the process of developing our CTE plan for the state, and we want to engage better with workforce. So that includes DLIR, that includes legislators. Some of you may have already engaged with us on the CTE plan.

And in particular, it includes the Department of Business and Economic Development and Tourism. We've been meeting with the Director and Deputy Director over there because we want to have a plan that we can all stand behind.

So sort of, in a macro sense, we want to set direction for those who create programs to know that you're doing a couple things. One is your engaging kids in programs that are exciting and fun for them, but you're also considering workforce needs, both current and future.

And then the second piece of the puzzle, which is more tangible is what I mentioned before, which is using some of our reserve funds to do sort of mini grants. And our vision for that would be that we require that they align it with areas of statewide need.

And those right now at least are, you know, the ones that we've talked about are healthcare, it, skilled trades, and then teaching as a profession. And then we're also talking with DBEDT. So one of the things we're thinking of including there would be creative industries and some of the other, maybe even value add and agriculture.

And the way we envision doing that would be where the applicants for that money would have to demonstrate alignment. So in other words, a high school by themselves wouldn't apply.

It would be a high school with a community college partner that says, hey, we're going to work together to create this real pipeline to a real need in our state as defined by the CTE plan.

So that's, to me, that's the tangible action that we're taking to get a little more prescriptive with at least a chunk of that money.

Thank you.

A quick follow-up.

Vice Chair.

The 12 is a 12.75% reserve. What's the...15% reserve? Is that your admin cost?

That. That's the. No, that's not the admin cost. That. That is the amount that can be kept aside for statewide initiatives. Correct? Yeah.

And then this is the first time that you'll be using it to sub...to do subawards.

Correct.

Okay, thank you.

Or like competitive subawards. Sometimes that money gets used for statewide activities. Sometimes that money has been given out to schools in a formulaic way. But we're, we're just trying to use it in a strategic way instead.

And then the reporting and assessment metrics that is currently asked from the Bill is already currently being incorporated in the planning for the new state CTE.

We're definitely doing performance metrics. Some of the metrics that are mentioned in the Bill are not. We don't have a way to measure them at this time. So, like, even though I get why they're in there, they make sense, some of them are not actually measurable given our data system and data privacy concerns that exist.

Like, you can't. As an example, you can't actually. We can't actually follow a student who, who doesn't go to college, who goes directly into our workforce. The reason is DOE doesn't collect Social Security numbers.

The way that UH is able to follow kids into the labor market is because there's Social Security numbers at UH, and you can, so you can follow and match and figure out if they're in our workforce.

For kids who do not go to college, who go directly into the workforce, it's a bit of a blank space right now. It's one of the reasons that we're, you know, there's conversation, other bills about data sharing across the, across the state.

Okay, thank you.

Members, any other questions? I have a quick question for DHRD. Director. Director, do you, do you currently work with P-20 on some of this pathway alignment?

We do not. We've had conversations, but we have. We don't have anything formal, but what I was hearing the previous speakers testify to, it's exciting to me. I like that synergy between DOE and the community colleges.

And I think the natural next step is into the state workforce. And how do we - perhaps it wouldn't be just two partners, but a third partner. And we would love to be that partnership.

Thank you. Member, any other questions? Okay. Seeing none. Recess.

Okay. Good afternoon. Convening for the Committee on Education. Today's date is the 18th. We are in conference room 309. And it is about 2:21. Four bills on the agenda. First up we have is SB 440 SD2. This establishes CTE teacher scholarship programs within the DOE. First up we have is DOE offering comments.

Aloha Chair Woodson, Vice Chair La Chica, Chair Garrett, Vice Chair Amato and Members of the Committee, Sean Bacon, Assistant Superintendent, testifying on behalf of the Department of Education. We stand on our written testimony providing comments on this measure and available for any questions. Thank you.

Thank you for being here.

Next, we have DBEDT offering comments. We have OHA in support and Chamber of Commerce in support. That's all I have on my list. Anyone else? See now Members, are there any questions? See none. We're going to go on to the next bill. SB894, SD3, HD1, DOE and Regional Kitchens.

First up we have is Deal E offering testimony and support in person.

Good afternoon, Chair, Vice Chair, members of the committee. Dean Uchida, Deputy Superintendent with Department of Education. The Department stands on its written testimony in support of this measure. I'll be around for answering questions if you have.

Thank you.

Next, we have Department of Ag offering testimony and support in person. Are they here, they're not here. We have DVED offering testimony in support. Agribusiness Development Corporation offering testimony in support. University of Hawaii. OH, please come up. State your name and your affiliate.

Thank you for being here.

Hi, good afternoon. Chair, Vice Chairs, members of the committee, Frankie Empeno with the AgriBusiness Development Corporation. We stand on our written testimony in support and are available if you have any questions.

Thank you so much. Next, we have University of Hawaii offering testimony in support.

Aloha, Chairs, Vice chairs, mahalo for the opportunity to testify. Parwinder Grewal, Dean of the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resilience. We strongly support this bill, and we stand on our written testimony in support. And happy to answer any questions. We do believe that this bill can provide a huge impetus to the local food production, and local farmers would be able to provide the needed food.

Thank you for being here, Dean. Next, we have Hawaii Farm Bureau offering testimony in support. Purple Maiʻa Foundation offering, oh, sorry, my eyes. Maiʻa Foundation offering testimony in support. And we have two individuals offering testimony in support. Anyone else? SB894. Seeing none, members are there any. Oh, please come up. DBEDT. Sorry.

Chair, Vice Chair, Joint Chair, Vice Chairs, members of committee, Dane Wicker, Deputy Director of DBEDT. And we stand on our testimony in support and available for questions.

Thank you, Deputy, for being here.

Thank you.

Okay, anyone else? Okay, members, any questions? Okay, Vice Chair.

Department of Education, please. Aloha, Deputy. And I know you're taking on this very exciting and large project for the implementation. Have you started putting together like a plan? What's kind of going into the plan?

And will there be an opportunity for either engagement with the communities where the kitchens will be located and the school districts, or how will this plan be shared with the region, the areas where it will be located?

Good question. Right now, we are working on the kitchen at Whitmore Village. We're looking for another site on Oahu, which is going to prove to be challenging because we're looking at maybe five or six acres, and it's not that kind of size lots in urban Honolulu.

So we're doing a site assessment not only for Oahu sites, but for the neighbor island sites at the same time. We're looking at schools first and then potentially having to acquire land elsewhere if the schools cannot accommodate a regional kitchen.

So we're looking at two on the Big Island, east and west, one on Maui, one on Kauai, and then smaller beefed-up kitchens for like, Lanai, Molokai, Hana, and in some of the more remote schools, we want to look at what we can do to the kitchen for a standalone facility like Naalehu Elementary School, Pahala, that kind of stuff. So we're in the initial planning stages right now, just trying to figure out what's available, you know, coming up with a budget of what's required at the site.

We're also trying to take a look at the existing cafeterias and what would be required to convert them into serving. You know, basically from a central kitchen to a serving kitchen. Right.

So there's a lot of stuff that's gotta get done first before we can actually lay out a game plan of what we're gonna do, where we're gonna do it. So we're in the initial steps of the planning process, basically.

I'm just curious, for the five to six acres, like, is that gonna be, like, what, what goes into the consideration for the five to six acres? Is that common for the other models that you've seen with the other kitchens on the mainland?

We had like four point six acres at Whitmore right now, and that kitchen was originally designed for, I think, 40,000 meals. So we're looking at something of a similar size.

A lot has to do with the access to the road because you're gonna have large trucks coming in, which limits, you know, you don't want to be in a residential neighborhood. You gotta have enough room to make the turning radius so the trucks can turn around, back up, and load and unload products, products.

So, yeah, there's a lot of details that go into the site selection that we need to take a look at.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Vice Chair Members. Any other questions? Okay, seeing that we're going to go on to the next Bill we have SB 1391 ST2. This is with regards to the Department of Education and classroom supplies. First up, we have DO E and support in person.

Good afternoon Chairs, Vice chairs, Members of the Committee, Heidi Armstrong, Department of in Department of Education. And we stand on our testimony in support of this Bill. Thank you.

Thank you for being here. Next we have OHA offering testimony and support. HSTA offering testimony and support via zoom here. Next we have Democratic Party of Hawaii Education Caucus offering testimony in support here. And then one individual also in support. It's Bill straightforward, pretty much. Any questions, Members or anyone else in the audience wanting to testify?

SB 1391. Members, any questions? Okay. Seeing none. We're going to go into the last bill of the day, SB 189, SD 2. This is with regards to J1 teachers and licenses. First up, DOE offering testimony in support in person.

Good afternoon, Chairs, Vice Chairs, Members of the Committee. Sean Bacon, testifying on behalf of the Department of Education. We stand on our written testimony in support and are available for any questions. Thank you.

Thank you for being here. And we have the Teacher Standards Board offering testimony in opposition in person.

Thank you, Chair, Vice Chair. Mitzie Higa speaking on behalf of the Hawaii Teacher Standards Board. We stand in opposition to SB 819. And there are so many reasons, but I'm going to highlight just a few because it's in my testimony. Emergency hires J1 visa holders are allowed to have any license that we have, that we offer, and many do once they meet the requirements become a license instead of a permit.

Teachers who come from the mainland with a teaching degree also have to take the Praxis, which seems to be part of the issue of what this bill is saying. The reason the Hawaii Teacher Standards Board became a separate entity from, it's an attached agency to the DOE, is to prevent conflict of interest and entanglement between licensure and employer.

So with that said, I think the real problem, and it's in our testimony, is that J1 visa holders are actually given third party loans from their, usually their country of origin. And these are at 60% annual interest. This is nuts. And it's unaffordable for them and we feel for them. It's not the cost of the Praxis that is hurting them, it is the reports that you'll see linked in my testimony from the Hawaii Teacher Standards Board that is the real problem.

So looking at the Praxis and what we require, and it's about $500 to take everything, but we don't have licensing fees anymore because we're funded by the legislators. Thank you. And part of what we're seeing is their salary, it was negotiated last term when they had a negotiation. And they do make $6,242 more than they did previously in this year, and next year they will make even more. So there was a consideration and they understood that. But Praxis is not the problem here.

Licensure is not the problem here. There's a bigger problem and a bigger issue that NCSL has brought up and they have presented it to Congress and there are people investigating and that is what needs to be done. And it's in the report if you need it. I'll be happy to bring you a copy. And that's where we stand in opposition.

Thank you, Dr. Higa. Next we have Hawaii Friends of Civil Rights in person. Dr. Agbayani.

Good afternoon. Thank you very much for hearing this bill. Hawaii Friends of Civil Rights strongly supports it.

Thank you for being here. Thank you for your testimony. Next we have testimony from 50 plus individuals. Every single one is support. That's all I have on my list. Anyone else wishing to provide testimony for this last bill, SB 819? Please come up.

Good afternoon, Chairs, Vice Chairs, Members of the Committees. Sandy Ma. I submitted written testimony, but I just was in the room and wanted to come up and say I also support this bill. We have a severe teacher shortage and think having teachers through the J1 visa program could really help alleviate some of the shortage we have in our public schools. Thank you very much.

Thank you so much for being here. Anyone else? Seeing none. Members, are there any questions? Vice Chair, go ahead.

Question for Mitzie, please. And then let me start for him to see, please. Okay, so we heard this bill in the first round and I also listened to the Senate Committee and, no, we're not... We know what your, you know, your role and we're not against... I'm not against what you're... You know, the quality of the teachers and the standards that you're trying to achieve. I did do my homework and I went to the Praxis website. Do you know how many states require some form of Praxis tests for licensure?

I can't give you a number. I can get that back to you. But I do know most of them. Some of them have Praxis and some of them have other forms of tests, and it depends. But our state requires the Praxis. We've settled on that to make sure that we're consistent.

And there's different kinds of Praxis tests, but with specific kind of Praxis test do you require?

So for Hawaii, if you have a teaching degree, you need to take the Praxis, which is called the core, which is basic skills. You need to take the PLT, depending on the grade level that you're teaching. And you need to take a content area. Like if you're teaching chemistry, you take the chemistry test.

If you're taking biology, you take the biology test. Elementary, that is one that you have to be very careful with. Because you elementary in some other countries, they're core specific, like they're departmentalized. They might be English elementary. But in Hawaii, we teach everything for elementary. So you have to take science, social studies, English language arts, and math. And there's a test for that.

And there's a required score that they need to like the GRE or SAT. Do you know what those scores are?

Well, for each individual one, I couldn't rattle it off on the top of my head, but I do know for the core for the Praxis for reading we need 156. And this is out of a score of 200. Because they can get 200, an average is 150. I can't... 155 to 184 on the average when people take it. And we do go by cut scores. Right. And then on the math they need 150 and the average is 152 to 182. So we're actually a little generous there. And on writing they need a 162 and the average is between 156 and 170. But they can't, all of them can go up to 200.

I did click on each state and looked at all of their requirements, and only 14 states... No, sorry, 17 states require the Praxis core tests on the reading, math, and writing. And on many of these tests, half of them have the same required scores. Some of them adjust, especially for math. Some have 146, 140. Nevada, I believe, has lower even for reading.

And thank you for indulging me on my late night request to pull the data that you do have. And I know it's just a sample, but I asked for the median scores for some of them. So among the 746 or so that did take the core, median is 136 for reading, 128 out of 150 for math, and then 132 out of 162 for writing. And many of them have taken them at least, sometimes up to four times and constantly failing the test.

I wouldn't say many, but yes.

Well, some. Some, a handful have tried to take it multiple times. So I mean, I have to apologize, but I do disagree with you when you say that the main concern is not Praxis here, but when we have 100-200 J1 visa teachers that are teaching at the second grade level, at the third grade level, at hard to fill areas, but they're being asked to take a standardized computer test multiple times at the high school level.

And to say that it's not a significant barrier, I do feel that it is. And perhaps with this data and looking what other states are doing, perhaps it's something that, you know, we can revisit and work with the Department to sort of meet halfway. And can we at least work with the teachers and actually talk to them and say, like, there are people who are taking these tests four times. Can we, what's a way for us to help you? If this is something you're not going to budge on.

And really, you know, going to make it a standard requirement. Because we're going to deny like, you know, they're recruiting 100 plus teachers next year. They're coming here next year, and then at the end of those three years, what are we going to do with all those, you know, the teachers?

And we know we need 1000 teachers every year. But again, it's just like we want to all work towards the teacher shortage. And so just wanted to say that, Chair. But I understand your concern and I do appreciate that you provided me with that data. So thank you.

Thank you, Vice Chair. Members, any other questions? I have a quick question for the board, but also first for DOE. Mr. Bacon, you can stay up there I guess. So per Dr. Higa, one of her concerns, she's stating that these loans by these third parties are up to 60% of the market costs. Have you experienced that or interface within your J1s that have said that that's what they're being charged?

To my knowledge, that is not the experience that our J1 teachers that have been experiencing at this point right now. We did have the US Department of State that did come out earlier, this past... They did do an audit of our program and they did do some fact finding and searching after that. There is no evidence at this point right now that shows that this is a problem that is occurring here in the State of Hawaii.

And Dr. Higa is shaking her head like that's not what you're hearing.

We've actually been texted by some teachers that are J1 visa holders who are afraid to come up, and they do not want their names revealed. And they brought it to our attention as well.

Okay. So that is a concern that some of these J1 teachers, they don't want to complain, and so it might not filter up to you. But I do know that you have an interface that's in place that is working with these J1 teachers as they integrate into the communities. Is it possible that you're not hearing or do you think that Dr. Higa is misinformed?

The Department always welcomes any type of feedback or any type of information from our, from any of our staff members at this point right now. And you know, we do have a confidential fraud and ethics type of hotline where they can definitely call and be anonymous and give us information. And if it is something that we need to look into, the Department is committed to looking into it to ensure that we are being transparent through this process.

Is everyone aware of that hotline and its confidentiality?

The Department publicizes it quite regularly. It's on our Department website and other in other areas in our schools. I believe it's out there, but it's something that we can always continue to push if need be.

Thank you. Dr. Higa, this is the companion to the House version, which is HB 439. You did not oppose that one. You did oppose it? So you're consistent. Okay. All right. Okay. I have no other questions. Members, any other questions? Okay. Seeing none. Recess.

Reconvening for the joint on lower and higher education. One bill on the agenda.

SB 1585 SD1. This is with regards to workforce development and P20 Member. This Bill needs some work. I would like to confer with the authority and move this to continue the discussion. Recommendations that passes. Was HD1 defecting the date to 7-1-3000. Questions? Comments? Concerns? Vice Chair for the votes.

[Roll Call]

Thank you. Higher higher education same recommendation. Any discussion? If not Vice Chair for the vote, please. HD1 thank you.

[Roll Call]

Thank you. Adjourn. Convening the Committee on education. We have four bills on the agenda. First up, SB 440 SD2. This establishes a CTE teacher scholarship program. Recommendation is to pass this with the HT1 defecting the date to July 1st, 3000. Questions, comments, concerns? Vice Chair for the vote.

[Roll Call]

Thank you. Going on to the next Bill. SB894 SD3 HD1. This is with regards to DOE and Regional Centralized Kitchens. Recommendation is to leave this as is as a House defective date. Questions? Comments? Concerns Vice Chair for the vote.

[Roll Call]

Thank you. Recess. They check to see. Check to see if.

Okay, Members, just out of abundance of caution, we are going to vote again on on SB440. SD2 recommendation is to pass this with a defective date of 7-1-3000. Questions, comments, concerns Vice Chair for the vote, please.

[Roll Call]

Thank you. Members. Moving on to SB 1391 SD2. This is DOE and Classroom Supplies. The recommendation is the passes with the HD1 defecting the date to July 1st, 3000. Questions, comments, concerns? Vice Chair for the vote, please.

[Roll Call]

Thank you, Members. And lastly, SB819SD2 teacher licenses for J1 teachers. This is the companion as it was stated to HB 439 Members. The recommendation to revert back to our HB 39. Excuse me. HP439HD1 questions, comments, concerns Vice Chair for the vote, please. That's a House position.

Members voting on Senate Bill 819, S.D. 2. Chair's recommendation is to pass with amendments. Any Members voting, no reservations. Reservations for Representative Amato. Any other Members voting with reservation. Okay, Chair, your recommendation is adopted.

Thank you. Adjourn.