Aloha neighbors and friends!

The 2009 Legislature will draw to a close on May 7. This is proving to be a very challenging year as chair of the Senate Committee on Education and Housing given the current economic situation. Even in a year when by necessity, we are cutting funding across the board, there is much that can be done to improve education and housing for our communities.

In education, bills to provide for early learning, charter schools, military dependent students, and teacher licensing are hopefully progressing to passage. Our proposed tax reform measure with a GET increase for education gained much more support than last year.

We hope to pass legislation to respond to the State Auditor's report on the Hawaii Teacher Standards Board. The report about problems in DOE procurement needs to be scrutinized and address the misperceptions as well as operational problems.  Several bills and resolutions address procurement issues in State agencies for cost-efficiency.

In housing, we will likely pass bills to plan for housing as related to mass transit development, expedite the process for permitting, and increase affordable and public housing and rentals units.Budget constraints will keep us from increasing repair and maintenance and construction of public housing but recent publicity on the condition of some housing makes clear that we need to act decisively for the health and safety of our communities.

Outside of education and housing we introduced  a bill and resolution to promote community service, coincidentally in keeping with President Obama's proposals to greatly increase federal support for volunteer service in America and globally. Both have been progressing well toward passage.

Please share with us your thoughts!

Aloha and May God Bless You,

LEARNING NEVER STOPS

"The beginning is the most important part of the work."

PLATO

Our Enthusiastic 2009 Session Staff

Front Row L-->R:  Kevin Cheney, UH Legislative Intern; Senator Norman Sakamoto; Erin Conner, Assistant Committee Clerk

Back Row L -->R:  Kiana Kauwe, Legislative Aide; Joanne Swearingen, Volunteer; Leatrice Galicinao, Administrative Assistant; Jacob Ng, Senior Legislative Aide; Allen Awaya, Committee Clerk; Cherry Torres, Office Manager; Christin Wehrsig, Legislative Aide; Lillian Miyao, Volunteer Missing Robert Arakaki, Volunteer