Bill Text: HI HB626 | 2025 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Relating To Education.
Spectrum: Moderate Partisan Bill (Democrat 18-3)
Status: (N/A) 2025-01-17 - Pending introduction. [HB626 Detail]
Download: Hawaii-2025-HB626-Introduced.html
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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES |
H.B. NO. |
626 |
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THIRTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2025 |
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STATE OF HAWAII |
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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 department of education's Hoʻākea: Mauka to Makai Navigating our Future Program is designed to educate students by integrating core educational concepts in math, science, social studies, civics, leadership, language, and literacy with cultural practices and traditions in ʻāina and community settings. Lesson plans also integrate environmental stewardship, climate change, native Hawaiian practices, responsibility to care for community, total well‑being, and a sense of place.
The legislature further finds that students become more engaged and curious when educational content is relevant to their home and culture. In addition, indigenous knowledge and practices are a key source to understanding climate change because they provide a deep understanding of local ecosystems. Indigenous knowledge can include early warning signs of environmental shifts and offer valuable knowledge on sustainable land management practices developed through generations of living in harmony with nature, allowing for more effective adaptation and mitigation strategies against climate change impacts.
The legislature also finds that Polynesian and native Hawaiian students have a longstanding, disproportionately high rate of absenteeism and lower educational achievement. Recognizing that the board of education formally adopted Nā Hopena Aʻo (HĀ) as a policy in 2015, the department of education has prioritized HĀ in its current strategic plan. By making educational material more relevant and engaging, creating conditions that make students feel safe, and honoring their heritage and culture, students will naturally be more engaged and excited about learning. By creating a HĀ environment for learning in this way, the department of education believes that graduates will be prepared not only for college and careers, but also for community and civic engagement. The department believes these lessons will endure as students become leaders, stewards, and critical thinkers when they graduate and begin navigating the world.
The
legislature notes that the Polynesian Voyaging Society and the ʻohana of waʻa were established as
organizations with educational missions to engage students in learning through
voyaging. Recognizing that most Pacific
Islander and native Hawaiian students attend public schools, and responding to
demand by department of education educators and principals to incorporate
authentic learning experiences like waʻa
and ʻāina, the department of
education has partnered with these organizations to start its own program,
called Hoʻākea, for department schools.
The legislature further notes that over the
past two years, the department of education has partnered with the ʻohana of waʻa and ʻāina
organizations, located in communities where department schools are located, to
design and deliver engaging, rigorous, authentic learning experiences for the
department's students in a number of ways.
The first way includes Hoʻākea, which connects students
and teachers with their community's waʻa and local ʻāina organizations to teach
Hawaiian navigation and voyaging, moʻolelo, or stories, and history. The second way includes student-focused
authentic learning experiences that occur in spaces outside the formal
classroom setting and out-of-school time such as after school or during the
summer, spring, and winter breaks. These
experiences further reinforce traditional classroom work with authentic real
world situations out in the community. The
third way includes teacher-focused professional development opportunities to
connect lesson plans in āina-based settings.
The
legislature recognizes that thus far, the Hoʻākea program has reached
over three thousand two hundred students and nearly one thousand three hundred
teachers and engaged more than fifty organizations across the State. There is increasing demand from schools for āina‑based learning
experiences that the department of education cannot meet with existing
resources. The department believes that
with sufficient funding provided in this Act, the department can triple
engagement by 2027.
The purpose of this Act is to appropriate
funds to the department of education to expand the department's Hoʻākea program.
SECTION 2. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $3,500,000 or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2025-2026 and the same sum or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2026-2027 for funding for the Hoʻākea program.
The sums appropriated shall be expended by the department of education for the purposes of this Act.
SECTION 3. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2025.
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INTRODUCED BY: |
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Report Title:
Department of Education; Hoʻākea Program; Appropriation
Description:
Appropriates funds to the Department of Education for the Department's Hoʻākea Program.
The summary description
of legislation appearing on this page is for informational purposes only and is
not legislation or evidence of legislative intent.
