Bill Text: HI HCR13 | 2011 | Regular Session | Introduced

Hawaii House Concurrent Resolution 13 (Prior Session Legislation)

Introduced

Bill Title: Teach For America; Congressional support

Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Republican 6-2)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2011-04-01 - (H) Report adopted; referred to the committee(s) on FIN with none voting no and Belatti, Say, Takumi, Tokioka, Wooley excused. [HCR13 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2011-HCR13-Introduced.html

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.C.R. NO.	13
TWENTY-SIXTH LEGISLATURE, 2011
STATE OF HAWAII

HOUSE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

requesting the Hawai�i congressional delegation to support the teach for america program.

WHEREAS, Teach For America, in partnership with the Department of Education, seeks to help address the problem of educational inequity by recruiting, selecting, training, and supporting outstanding individuals who commit two years to teaching in low-income schools and go on to become leaders in their own right, in the movement to achieve educational equity; and

WHEREAS, Teach For America relies on federal funding to support its program annually, and has received $21 million in 2010 through Congressional appropriations, and have requested $50 million for the 2011 Fiscal Year; and

WHEREAS, the requested funds for Fiscal Year 2011 will enable Teach For America to place an additional 1,350 corps members, reaching 86,000 students, in low-income communities; and

WHEREAS, without future funding, Teach For America would have to turn away well over a thousand applicants who otherwise would have started working immediately to close the achievement gap between students in low-income communities and their peers in higher-income areas; and

WHEREAS, the requested $50 million federal allocation in Fiscal Year 2011 will help to solidify Teach For America's mission to reach one million students in low-income communities each day by 2015; and

WHEREAS, federal funding will help Teach For America-Hawai�i to recruit high quality teachers and train them to be fully prepared to enter Hawai'i classrooms, and will also help subsidize the Hawai'i regional office's operating costs, which are used to further support teachers over their two-year commitment; and

WHEREAS, the Legislature has demonstrated its support for Teach For America-Hawai�i by appropriating $165,000 in FY 2008; and

WHEREAS, there are currently 122 teachers, 17 percent of whom are kama�āina, teaching in 39 schools across O�ahu and the Big Island who are impacting over 10,000 students, as well as over 100 Teach For America alumni living in Hawai�i, the majority of whom remain in education-related jobs; and

WHEREAS, Teach For America-Hawai�i is committed to serving Hawai�i�s most underserved children by placing teachers in high-need areas, which include the Leeward Coast on O�ahu and the Kau/Kea�au/Pāhoa districts on the Big Island; and

WHEREAS, each year, the Teach For America-Hawai�i staff focuses heavily on efforts to increase the number of Native Hawaiian applicants, and their eventual participation into its teacher corps; and

WHEREAS, Teach For America-Hawai�i corps members and alumni teach with the conviction that all children can achieve, and work to ensure that every student has the opportunity to succeed academically and in life, regardless of their economic background; and

WHEREAS, 100% of Hawai�i principals surveyed in 2009 stated that Teach For America-Hawai�i teachers were above average or average as compared to other teachers; and

WHEREAS, research over time has conclusively shown that Teach For America corps members' impact on their students' achievement is equal to or greater than that of other new teachers, and exceeds that of experienced and certified teachers in the same schools; and

WHEREAS, the majority of Teach For America-Hawai�i corps members become involved in their school communities outside of the classroom by coaching extracurricular activities, tutoring, and taking on leadership roles; and

WHEREAS, Teach For America-Hawai�i is building an essential pipeline of leadership for our community by attracting future leaders to the field of education who, with the insight, conviction, and passion gained during their two-year teaching commitment, pursue leadership positions in education and other sectors and continue to pursue educational equity throughout their lives; and

WHEREAS, ultimately, Teach For America-Hawai`i helps to address a long-standing issue of teacher placement in lower-income communities; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-sixth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2011, the Senate concurring, that Hawai`i's Congressional Delegation is requested to continue to support the Teach For America Program; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the offices of U.S. Senator Daniel Inouye, U.S. Senator Daniel Akaka, U.S. Congresswoman Mazie Hirono and U.S. Congresswoman Colleen Hanabusa.

OFFERED BY:

_____________________________