There is a public perception that the constitutional amendment for preschool is going to improve our keiki’s education and provide a leveled playing field for poor and middle-class children, but in reality, the ConAm to give public money to private preschools is indicative of the poor treatment we give to public schools in the U.S.
Instead of investing in all children in the public school system, we perpetuate the status quo in the U.S., which is one of the few industrial countries that spends more on rich children than on poor children. On the face of it, the ConAm sounds benevolent, but when you go beyond the surface, you see the inequality that the ConAm is designed to perpetuate.
This ConAm gives public money to private preschools, but not all private preschools have the same level of quality or admission costs; there are expensive and cheaper preschools. The expensive schools can hire trained teachers and have low student-to-teacher ratios, and these preschools can cost up to $15,000.
Is the state’s goal to put poor and middle-class children in these quality preschools? No, in the end the state will probably pay part of the tuition, leaving the rest to the parents. Given the disparity in the quality and admission costs among private preschools, it is apparent that only rich parents are able to send their children to these quality private preschools, but now with the ConAm, the public will be subsidizing these wealthier children’s educational costs.
Of course this is popular in a state that already has the highest rate of private school attendance in the nation. The ConAm proponents’ pleas will obviously fall on sympathetic ears as many legislators and Board of Education members already have sent their children to private schools.
Now for poor and middle-class children, their situation will be different; they will have no other options but to go to the private preschools whose admission charge is fully covered by the state. These for-profit private preschools have the goal of making a profit, unlike public schools whose mission is to educate all children. In order to make a profit, these for-profit private preschools will lower the operation costs by hiring cheap, near minimum wage, untrained "teachers" –who then will teach our poorest, most underserved students.
To put it in other words: Rich children will get highly qualified teachers in well-maintained classrooms with public subsidy, and poor children will get low-cost untrained teachers in poor environments with little or no educational value.
To make things worse: In order to make way for this ConAm, the state eliminated junior kindergarten in public schools. These poor, underserved children used to get free breakfast and lunch, busing, special education services, and all the services that are provided to public school children. But in low-cost, for-profit private preschools, these essential services will be missing.
What this ConAm proposes is that our most needy children will have poorly paid teachers with little or no certification, eliminate the only food some kids eat all day, and create a system where special needs students are not accepted because they cost too much for for-profit private schools.
We need to oppose this ConAm and do what many industrialized nations do around the world: Provide free and quality universal PUBLIC preschool, a place where inequalities are not perpetuated, and instead, all children are given a quality preschool to give them a chance to thrive in society.
I am a committed public school teacher and I am asking everyone to vote "no" on the ConAm. Then next year, we should ask the Legislature to fully fund PUBLIC preschools for ALL of Hawaii’s children.
