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It has taken more than a half-dozen years and a new governor, but finally, Hawaii is moving to create a state-run preschool education system.
Last week Gov. David Ige gave a full-throated endorsement of a plan that already had the support of his political ally, the Hawaii State Teachers Association. It was an issue that Ige had rejected back in 2014 when he opposed then-incumbent Gov. Neil Abercrombie’s plan in the Democratic primary that Abercrombie lost.
Back then, Ige said he understood the importance of early education, but added that Abercrombie’s plan to frame a state Constitutional amendment allowing public funds to go to private preschools wasn’t the answer.
“I just think that the plan is not well-conceived. There are not sufficient private providers. They’re not in the communities that they’re most need. And the cost is overwhelming,” Ige said in a 2014 Honolulu Star-Advertiser interview.
Ige’s thinking closely paralleled the HSTA, which drove the opposition to the amendment because it feared that the payments would lead to a private voucher program. The amendment failed in the 2014 general election.
The union wanted public preschools at public schools, staffed by public school teachers. Ige answered the union’s call in this year’s State of the State speech, saying, “We must create a universal, statewide high-quality public preschool system.”
Apparently Ige’s initial roadblocks of preschool
being too costly and lacking staff have faded in the
past six years, but there
are already estimates
that the plan would cost the Department of Education $500 million.
No estimates were given for actual time to implement.
Former Gov. Abercrombie, when asked about Ige’s modified change of heart, praised his successor for realizing the importance of early education.
“I am very pleased that now there is recognition of an issue that I focused on. I congratulate the governor on his insight and I am pleased he has put it front and center,” Abercrombie said in an interview.
Abercrombie, however, said he was disappointed in the HSTA for not supporting his first plan because “by failing to support it when they did, they were harming every elementary school teacher now teaching every public school student coming to them without the benefit of preschool.
“Kids can fall behind permanently. By delaying, you are creating an overclass and an underclass,” Abercrombie said, pointing to the disadvantages attributed to children who do not got to preschool.
The Center for American Progress, an independent nonpartisan policy institute, estimates that “Voluntary universal preschool for all 3- and 4-year-olds would increase access for 39,500 children in Hawaii,” according to a 2017 report.
“Research also tells us that early childhood education, such as preschool programs, are critical for brain development,” Ige said in his speech last week.
State-funded pre-K programs currently serve just 22 percent of 4-year-olds and 3 percent of 3-year-olds in the country, according to the National Institute for Early Education Research.
Whether preschool for all of Hawaii’s young becomes the beginning of a legacy for Ige is far from decided — but if it moves forward,
it will be because of the groundwork laid by Abercrombie.
Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays. Reach him at 808onpolitics@gmail.com.
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