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Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie could soon be appointing his Board of Education members, thanks to legislators fast-tracking .

Meanwhile, there is a slew of other education-related bills still standing after this week’s legislative crossover — the deadline for Senate bills to be transmitted to the House and vice versa. Most of the ones that made the cut deal with the Department of Education and K-12 schools, although several could affect the University of Hawaii.

Surprisingly, despite making the governor’s Jan. 24 State of the State speech, Sen. Clayton Hee’s proposal for a Hawaiian Language University fell by the wayside.

One of the legislative priorities that has emerged is a commitment to catching school bullies on campus and online. Lawmakers began the session with at least eight bills dealing with harassment and bullying at school. The eight have since been whittled down to two.

Here’s a look at the the key proposals that survived — and some that didn’t.

What’s Alive

Board of Education Student Member

Bill Number:

What It Does: Grants voting rights to the Board of Education’s student representative. Senate Education Chairwoman Jill Tokuda has been lobbying for student member voting rights since she was a student. Given the voting records of lawmakers who have approved the measure, “There’s reason to be optimistic that perhaps this is the year,” Tokuda told Civil Beat.

A hearing will be held on the bill next Friday while high school students are at the Capitol for a legislative training session.

Bullying

Bill Number: /

What They Do: Establish a bullying and cyber-bullying policy for schools.

School Lands

Bill Number: /

What They Do: Establish a public school lands trust, which would develop underused school property for commercial use. Proceeds would help fund new 21st-Century school buildings.

“That is one that I envision having a lot more discussion moving forward,” Tokuda said. “It’s a very different approach and very out of the box, but it focuses on better utilization and facilities, so it’s definitely worth taking a closer look at it. It’s innovative and it does look at maximimzing resources.”

Tokuda said that lawmakers will probably merge the two bills into whichever bill crossed over first.

Early Childhood Education

Bill Number:

What It Does: Requires that students be assessed before entering the first grade in order to ascertain their unique educational needs.

School Consolidations

Bill Number:

What It Does: Requires the Department of Education to establish an objective process for determining which public schools should be consolidated, and gives parents and community members one year to come an alternate solution for schools once they are recommended for consolidation.

Accountability

Bill Number:

What It Does: Requires charter schools to develop internal policies on ethics and to submit formulas for their needs-based facilities funding requests.

Bill Number:

What It Does: Creates a task force that would examine whether Hawaii should consolidate the licensing and authorization functions of all the educational institutions in the state. “It’s kind of complicated and not sexy, but from an operational standpoint, it could really streamline things and make sure everyone has access to highly qualified teachers, principals and professors,” Sen. Tokuda said.

Miscellaneous

Bill Numbers: /

What They Do: Establish different minimum instruction time requirements for multi-track public schools than for schools on a regular schedule.

Bill Number:

What It Does: Requires the Department of Education to establish policies that would allow home schoolers to participate in extracurricular activities offered at their neighborhood public schools.

Bill Number:

What It Does: Extends the length of time that the John A. Burns School of Medicine will be receiving a significant chunk of tobacco settlement money to fund its operations.

What’s Dead

Bullying

Bill Numbers: //

What They Did: Proposed various solutions for school bullying — one of proposed making school harassment a crime, every incident of which would be reported to the police.

Higher Education

Bill Number:

What It Did: Established a Hawaiian language university within the University of Hawaii at Hilo. Civil Beat reported in February that scant details were available about the proposal and that UH Hilo already has a Hawaiian language college.

Bill Number:

What It Did: Would have created a tuition incentive for public school students who finish high school before 12th grade and enter the UH system.

Accountability

Bill Number:

What It Did: Would have established a mandatory comprehensive audit of the Department of Education. (Flashback fun: This mandatory comprehensive audit of the department was a key part of former Lt. Gov James “Duke” Aiona‘s candidacy for governor last year.)

Early Childhood Education

Bill Numbers: / /

What They Did: Would have made kindergarten mandatory for 5-year-olds.