A bill that aims to make “early learning” programs available to all 3-year-olds and 4-year-olds by 2030 received wide support at its first hearing although issues need to be worked out, including funding and staffing given the teacher shortage.
According to the Kids Count Data Center, 53% of children aged 3 and 4 in Hawaii, or roughly 20,000 keiki, do not attend nursery school, preschool or kindergarten.
House Bill 2543 HD1 would expand the Preschool Open Doors program, which is run by the Department of Human Services and offers child care subsidies to needy children in the year prior to kindergarten. The legislation would open that up to 3-year-olds as well. It also calls for providing funds to help private providers expand, and even opening classrooms in public libraries.
The bill is part of a joint House-Senate package that was unveiled last month at a press conference attended by Gov. David Ige. Finance Chairwoman Sylvia Luke said that after decades of discussion about making preschool available to all, it is time to do something “right away.”
“This is about allowing families the option to go to work while their children go to preschool — the people who cannot afford to send their kids to preschool or programs,” she said.
The bill had the support of major nonprofits, including the Hawaii Community Foundation, Hawaii Executive Collaborative, Kamehameha Schools, Partners in Development Foundation, Hui for Excellence in Education Coalition and the Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii.
“At Kamehameha Schools we understand early learning education — we know it is hard,” Kamehameha Schools CEO Jack Wong testified in person. “We know this bill has a lot of challenges. Our testimony is that we love it anyway, just like we love our kids anyway. Our advocacy is really about making sure that we keep the big
picture in mind. … It’s about time we got started and we appreciate the opportunity to do so.”
Private operators provide the bulk of early education in Hawaii although there are some preschool classrooms on public school campuses. The Department of Education offers preschool to about 1,600 students needing special education and the Executive Office on Early Learning oversees preschool classrooms with capacity for 880 children, due to expand to 1,100 next year. The federal Head Start program has funding for 2,200 preschoolers.
After Tuesday’s joint hearing, leaders of the House Committees on Finance and Lower and Higher Education put off decision making until Tuesday at 2 p.m. to incorporate feedback from a range of stakeholders.
“We’ve had a lot of meaningful testimony, so we’re going to massage it for a little bit,” said Education Chairman Justin Woodson, highlighting broad agreement on its ultimate goal. “You have the House, you have the Senate, you have the governor’s office, you have private sector, nonprofits, you have community organizations all coming together saying that this is a goal that we want to accomplish,” he said.
In written testimony, the Hawaii Democratic Party opposed the bill, arguing that safety and quality should not be sacrificed in a rush to open more preschools, given the lack of trained staff available. It also opposed the use of taxpayer money to subsidize for-profit businesses.
Some questions remain about the legal technicalities of the plan. Preschool Open Doors is a “child care subsidy” program administered by the Department of Human Services, rather than an educational one. In 2014, Hawaii voters rejected a proposed constitutional amendment that would have allowed the state to spend public funds on private preschool programs.
Rep. Chris Todd (D, Hilo-Waiakea-Keaukaha) asked whether there is a constitutional concern if the state “essentially subsidized” a religious preschool education, but no one from the Attorney General’s Office was present to answer.
Corey Rosenlee, president of the Hawaii State Teachers Association, testified that the union fully supports expanding access to preschool but four barriers need to be addressed: having enough personnel, facilities, the cost and maintaining quality.
“We do believe though that if we are going to expand, it should be done through a public rather than a private model,” he said. ‘We believe that the public model would be able to do it cheaper and better than a private model.”
Superintendent Christina Kishimoto encouraged legislators to expand public preschool options, saying classrooms are available at various public schools.
Lauren Moriguchi, director of the Executive Office on Early Learning, stressed the need for quality and the workforce challenges.
“One of the things we’ve learned from our program as well as our collaborative work across private and public partners in the field is that most if not all of us cannot find enough qualified staff to expand quickly,” she said.
Funding amounts are left blank in the bill. It would create a “Preschool Open Doors trust fund” to receive fees, grants, donations and legislative funds, and a “Preschool Grant Program Special Fund” to support private entities.
“We hope for a powerful combination of philanthropic, social sector dollars and government sector dollars in amounts that really will be able to allow us to move the needle a lot on this,” said Terrence George, who co-chairs an early education committee for the Executive Collaborative.
