On Politics: Green, Luke to tackle universal preschool

Gov. Josh Green is showing off his first proposed Hawaii state budget, and it is the biggest in state history.

It is expected that each administration will present an annual budget larger than the year before, but this one is really big. In fiscal year 2024, the total state budget is $18.02 billion and $17.86 billion in fiscal 2025.

Green, in his message to the state Legislature, calculated that the budget is an increase of $2.04 billion or 13% in the first year and $1.82 billion or 11% in the second fiscal year.

Green called the budget “one of the most significant policy pieces” he can put forth as governor.

The proposal includes Green’s ambitious housing plans, which he calls an answer to Hawaii’s affordable housing crisis.

“We will work with developers, the construction industry, and other stakeholders to expedite the development of affordable housing,” he vowed.

Next up was Green’s plans “to reduce Hawaii’s high cost of living by easing the state tax burden on necessities such as food and medicine.”

Then the governor raised an issue that has had little discussion this year: universal prekindergarten.

“One of our priorities will be to invest in universal prekindergarten as it is proven that early childhood education improves the outcomes for children throughout their lives,” Green wrote in his budget message.

Green is the third Hawaii Democratic governor in a row to urge adoption of a universal public prekindergarten program. Former Gov. Neil Abercrombie was a passionate advocate who allowed the issue to become linked to a state constitutional amendment allowing public funds to go to private preschools.

Former Gov. David Ige was an early critic of state-funded preschool and kindergarten.

“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 needed. And the cost is overwhelming,” Ige said in a 2014 Honolulu Star-Advertiser interview, before changing his policy.

Ige didn’t say so, but support for public preschool had been stymied by the public teachers union, which didn’t want public money going to fund private preschools and fought the constitutional amendment, which eventually failed.

The union wanted public preschools at public schools, staffed by public school teachers. Ige got in line with the teachers union, something that Abercrombie refused to do. Ige was careful to say in a State of the State speech: “We must create a universal, statewide high-quality public preschool system.”

Now Gov. Green has given the task of universal preschool to Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke, an attorney with a decade of experience running the House Finance Committee.

If Green and Luke can make good and deliver universal preschool to Hawaii’s families, they will have done something that many promised but failed to translate into a functioning program.

Green is fond of displaying his talents with the Magic Marker and eraser board, mapping out plans.

Bringing one new, much-needed government program to fruition for the state shows not just the ability to plan, but the drive to actually deliver. Big difference.

Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays. Reach him at 808onpolitics@gmail.com.