Gov. Neil Abercrombie says he’s confident lawmakers will back his administration’s plan to fund public pre-kindergarten classes in the coming school year — an important first step toward launching a comprehensive early childhood learning system that could eventually include partnering with private preschool providers to serve all of the state’s 4-year-olds.

"We’re moving forward on this. We’re going to win this thing," Abercrombie said Wednesday at a symposium his Executive Office on Early Learning hosted in part to outline his early-learning initiatives. About 90 people registered for the event, held at the Plaza Club, including about a dozen state legislators.

"We have a Legislature that’s very open on this issue. Not only open on it but I think ready to make moves, and has made moves," the governor added. "Now the fact that these moves have been in some people’s eye, perhaps, a bit cautious, that’s OK. That’s part of the legislative process. It’s kind of a shame in a way, I suppose. I’m not proud of the fact that we’re having to follow other states (when) we’ve been pioneers in a lot of ways."

Hawaii is one of 11 states without state-funded universal preschool. Forty-two percent of island children enter kindergarten without preschool experience.

Last legislative session, lawmakers chose to expand an existing child care program that provides preschool tuition subsidies rather than fund the governor’s push for state-funded preschool. Lawmakers converted a proposal for a $25 million proposed school readiness program into a $6 million expansion of Preschool Open Doors, which provides assistance for low-income families to send their children to private preschool.

Those subsidies will help cover the cost of preschool for about 900 needy children — a fraction of the estimated 5,100 4-year-olds who will be affected next school year when the state moves to a higher kindergarten entry age and eliminates junior kindergarten (designed for late-born 4-year-olds too young for kindergarten) at public schools.

Abercrombie’s remarks Wednesday came two days after his early-learning office presented its budget request to a panel of the House and Senate money committees. The request — which includes $4.5 million to establish 30 preschool classes at public schools to serve 640 children — was met with criticism by some lawmakers who called the initiative premature.

State Sen. Laura Thielen asked if the investment would be pointless if a proposed constitutional amendment that will be on the November ballot ends up defeated.

The amendment, if passed, would allow the state to contract with private preschool providers to build capacity. The state Constitution prohibits public money from being spent to support or benefit any private educational institution.

But Abercrombie said the proposed amendment is a separate matter.

"That’s a separate issue from the question of whether or not we’re going to have preschool in the public schools that we’re moving toward right now," Abercrombie said after his symposium remarks. "To the degree and extent that we can utilize the private sector as well, we think that’s a good idea."

GG Weisenfeld, director of the Executive Office on Early Learning, has said a combination of public preschools, private preschools and state-funded slots in private programs is likely needed to eventually serve all of the state’s 17,200 4-year-olds.

Her office is also seeking $1 million to contract with so-called "family-child interaction learning providers," programs parents attend with their preschoolers, to serve an additional 400 children next school year.

Abercrombie described the funding requests as a modest investment in light of the record $844 million budget surplus the state saw at the end of last fiscal year.

"The funding for it is well within the budgetary capacity we have now," Abercrombie said.

He added, "If the Legislature concludes that we made a good start, that we have an excellent program, that preschool is something that we want to move towards for all of the children in our state, then we think an expansion … is in order. And we believe … that we can not only afford it, but look at it as an investment that will have big dividends in the future."