Single mom Genna Nicholson is stretching her budget to pay the $700 a month needed to send her 4-year-old son, Cassius, to the Waikiki Community Center Preschool.
"I used to be on state assistance. Now I don’t qualify. My cost has gone up by about $100 a month. That’s hard because my budget is really tight. It will be a big weight lifted when I don’t have to pay for preschool anymore," Nicholson said.
Cassius made the new cutoff to enroll in kindergarten at a public school by 10 days.
For the next school year, kindergartners must be at least 5 years old by July 31. Roughly 5,000 children who will mark their fifth birthdays later than that will have to wait a year before starting kindergarten.
Earlier this year state lawmakers decided to do away with junior kindergarten — launched in 2006 for late-born 4-year-olds — in public schools. Supporters maintain it’s a move toward publicly funded universal preschool. Hawaii is one of 11 states without state-funded preschool.
Gov. Neil Abercrombie signed legislation establishing a statewide school readiness program that will provide funding for about 1,000 late-born children to attend preschool during the 2014-15 school year. However, preschool providers and parents contend that the need is much greater than the funding — $6 million in subsidies for low-income families and underserved or at-risk keiki available through the Preschool Open Doors program.
Abercrombie also established the Executive Office on Early Learning to lead the move toward universal preschool, but lawmakers have scaled down or deferred many of the governor’s early-education plans. Instead, they agreed to place a constitutional amendment on the 2014 ballot asking voters whether they would support spending public money on private early-education programs.
Meanwhile, private preschools across the state are now grappling with whether they will have space for the late-born children and whether subsidies will entice parents to enroll their kids in another year of preschool as opposed to leaning on relatives or home-based programs, where early learning might not be the focus.
Programs such as the Waikiki Community Center Preschool, which enrolls numerous children from low-income families, could be among the hardest hit.
"I’m concerned that the additional cost could be beyond the scope of what most lower-income and middle-class families can afford," said Pamela Seelig, early-education director at Waikiki Community Center.
"Many preschools have enough room but not enough subsidies to cover these children," Seelig said. "Assistance has a big impact on preschool enrollment. In 2010, when the state dramatically cut subsidies, we saw our preschool enrollment drop by 50 percent."
At that time, Seelig said, parents who had been responsible for paying for 25 percent of their child’s preschool costs were suddenly responsible for 90 percent.
"We have space for 74 kids, but I only have 35 right now," Seelig said. "We are trying to help parents with resources, but we just don’t know what’s going to be available."
Chuck Larson, Seagull Schools executive director, said the Preschool Open Doors program will not have enough funding to accommodate all families in need of assistance.
"I hope the Legislature will consider releasing more funding," he said. "Economically it’s going to be a hardship for a lot of people."
Rhea Olsen, whose 4-year-old son, Logan, attends Seagull Schools, said she and her husband spaced the births of their children so they would not have to simultaneously pay two preschool tuitions.
"Our 8-month-old will start preschool at 2," Olsen said. "It’s going to impact us financially when we have to start paying for them both at the same time."
Financial concerns blocked Garett Chang and his wife from enrolling their son, Brayden, in preschool.
"We knew that we couldn’t afford three years of preschool, so my wife stayed home to watch our son every day," Chang said. "It’s sad. We knew that he wanted to be enrolled. Now he is behind academically and socially. If junior kindergarten had been an option, we would have sent him."
Among parents of late-born keiki who can afford an additional year of preschool, some are not looking forward to the next school year.
"I will be spending $9,576 to, essentially, repeat the same curriculum," said Dave Brier, whose late-born son, Rory, will be spending an extra year in preschool at his family’s expense.
"There is no guarantee the program will be enriched to deal with the learning needs of these late-born students. Rather than positioning Hawaii’s late-born 4-year-olds for success in kindergarten, these programs are more likely to lead to intellectual stagnation and boredom," Brier said.
Seagull Schools parent Tamber Garcia said she’s frustrated that she will have to keep her daughter, Hi‘ilei, in preschool another year. "She’s academically and socially ready to move forward," Garcia said.
Brier said the Legislature should have finalized details for its universal preschool concept before eliminating junior kindergarten. "Our children are going to be a social experiment," he said.
Education research shows that appropriate preschool and kindergarten curriculums are vital to academic and social success, said Amy Oakes, a kindergarten teacher at Waikiki Elementary School.
"I have four kindergartners now that never had a preschool experience because their parents couldn’t afford it. Two of those kids are really behind," she said.
Oakes would like to see the Legislature revisit its decision to eliminate junior kindergarten. "I’m hoping that they would at least consider funding a half-day program," she said.
Waikiki Elementary Principal Bonnie Tabor said junior kindergarten has been an important component of the school’s successful tiered kindergarten approach, which also includes a senior kindergarten — an optional year that allows students extra time for social and academic development.
The system was developed to "level the playing field for our early learners who enter school at a disadvantage, and help them get off to a good start," Tabor said. "I believe that we need junior kindergarten."
