Hawaii could formally establish a statewide public preschool program within the public school system under advancing legislation — but the effort is unlikely to see any boost in funding beyond 21 classrooms set up this school year.

With voters rejecting a constitutional amendment in November that would have allowed the state to contract with private preschool providers to serve more keiki, bills moving through the Legislature would create the framework for a state-funded early childhood education program.

The program would be run by the state Executive Office on Early Learning and serve children in the year before kindergarten eligibility, with priority given to underserved and disadvantaged children. Enrollment would be voluntary.

Preschool in the islands has historically been provided by community-based organizations funded with philanthropic and federal support. Of the approximately 17,000 4-year-olds in the islands in any given year, an estimated 55 percent to 60 percent attend a preschool program.

Studies have shown that children provided with the opportunity for high-quality early childhood education are more likely to succeed in kindergarten and beyond. Other research asserts that some programs, such as the federal Head Start program for children from low-income families, have short-term results that can diminish over time.

Forty-three percent of children entering kindergarten at Hawaii public schools had not attended a preschool program, and fewer than 3 percent of kindergartners had met all learning benchmarks, according to the Hawaii State School Readiness Assessment for 2013-14.

Last year the state for the first time designated public funds for prekindergarten education, joining about 40 other states that provide state-funded preschool. Lawmakers agreed to provide $3 million to set up 21 prekindergarten classes at 18 public schools this school year to offer free instruction (public schools can’t charge tuition) for about 420 students who meet geographic and income qualifications.

The state also provided an additional $6 million to cover almost 1,300 children through the existing Preschool Open Doors program, which provides tuition subsidies for low-income families to send their children to a licensed preschool.

Senate Bill 844 and its companion, House Bill 820, would authorize the Executive Office on Early Learning to work with the state Department of Education to establish preschool classrooms on public and charter school campuses. The bills — which would require the early learning agency to measure educational outcomes — unanimously cleared the education committees in each chamber.

GG Weisenfeld, former director of the Executive Office on Early Learning under Gov. Neil Abercrombie, said the enabling legislation is an important next step.

"This is the obvious next step in order to sustain the prekindergarten program," Weisenfeld said. "It also sends the message on the federal level that Hawaii is committed to publicly funded prekindergarten, that it’s not dependent on an administration but is really part of the state’s plan."

Gov. David Ige has yet to appoint someone to the director’s post. The 2012 legislation that created the early learning office transfers the agency from the governor’s office to the DOE for administrative purposes effective July 1.

SB 844 advanced out of the Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday, while HB 820 is scheduled to be heard Thursday morning by the House Finance Committee.

Ways and Means Chairwoman Jill Tokuda — former chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee — amended the bill to remove a blank appropriation that would have provided additional funding later in the session. The change could help make the bill more appealing to lawmakers since it now has no direct funding implications.

"Should any additional funds become available, what I’d like to do is just put that directly into the budget as a line item, because, especially if we’re establishing classrooms, you would want a little more permanency there versus every single year having to come back to us," Tokuda (D, Kaneohe-Kailua) told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. "The benefit is that it would become a recurring cost. For a school, a community, to not know year to year if they’re going to have funding or not, that’s very difficult."

But she said it’s unclear if legislators will be able to provide more than the $3 million already allotted, given the state’s tight budget situation.

"I think there is still definitely hope that we can do more in terms of public pre-kindergarten classrooms, but what definitely surprised everybody and now needs to be considered is those additional Preschool Open Doors funds that are helping a lot of families access quality school readiness programs is not in the budget," Tokuda said.

Another bill, SB 64, has been introduced in the hope of providing $6 million in Preschool Open Door subsidies for the upcoming 2015-16 school year.

Running a purely public, full-scale prekindergarten system within the DOE would cost an estimated $150 million a year.