Senate Committee on Education (EDU) - chair: Michelle N. Kidani, vice chair: Vice-Chair Breene Harimoto

Monday, March 30, 2015, 1:15 p.m., Room 229

Testifier: Janet F. Mason, Co Chair, Legislative Committee

Click here to view SCR113

Chair Kidani, Vice-Chair Harimoto, and Committee Members: The League of Women Voters of Hawaii supports SCR 113. The measure asks the Board of Education to televise its meetings or make them available over the internet. We support the public’s right and interest concerning the administration, policy setting and budget making for our statewide public school and library systems. We acknowledge the leadership already shown by members of this Committee in improving access to participation in education policy making. At the present time, the public is permitted to testify at full Board of Education meetings, but the location of these meetings rotates regularly so that meetings are directly available to different communities throughout the State. Having the meetings broadcast could interest in Board decision making and effectively make the meetings available statewide. Frankly we hope in the not-too-distant future citizen participation may include online testimony before the Board, since there is such a large constituency of citizens throughout the State who use library and school services. Any Department of Education facilities already available for internal web conferencing could surely be adapted for the Board’s occasional use for full Board of Education meetings. We expect it would take some time for the public to adjust to any new opportunity to participate, so we hope this would be publicized appropriately by the Department of Education. We urge you to pass this resolution. Thank you for the opportunity to submit testimony.