HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.C.R. NO.	170
THIRTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2021
STATE OF HAWAII

HOUSE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

 

 

requesting the department of education to ensure that the department's annual budget request to the legislature includes adequate funding for hawaiian education.

 

 

 

        WHEREAS, the Hawaiian Kingdom emphasized the importance of literacy and education and committed significant shares of Kingdom revenues and government lands to public education; and

 

        WHEREAS, Hawaiian literacy and education have been critical to preserving and maintaining Hawaiian culture despite colonization, depopulation, and past epidemics; and

 

        WHEREAS, in today's public schools, significant achievement gaps exist for Native Hawaiian students in math and language arts proficiency; and

 

        WHEREAS, a school-to-prison pipeline also exists for Native Hawaiian youth, who are overrepresented in out-of-school suspension processes, juvenile arrests, and juvenile incarcerations; and

 

        WHEREAS, Native Hawaiian students who experience cultural dissonance or feel disconnected from compulsory public education in the State may choose not to reengage the public school system; and

 

        WHEREAS, the economic and educational setbacks caused in Hawaii by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic provide an opportunity for the State to rethink its systems of learning; and

 

        WHEREAS, Hawaiian education should include not just Hawaiian culture, language, and history, as required by the state constitution, but also strength-, place-, and culture-based ways of learning; and

 

        WHEREAS, the budget shortfalls caused by COVID-19 make it especially critical to protect and ensure adequate funding to maintain and expand Hawaiian education; now, therefore,

 

        BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Thirty-first Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2021, the Senate concurring, that the Department of Education is requested to ensure that the Department's annual budget request to the Legislature includes adequate funding for Hawaiian education; and

 

        BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Chairperson of the Board of Education, Chairperson of the Board of Regents, and Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.

 

 

 

	OFFERED BY:	_____________________________

Report Title:  

DOE; Hawaiian Education