Editorial: Preschools need more teachers

The importance of a solid early-educational foundation for Hawaii’s keiki has been understood for many years, and providing one has long been on the state’s wish list.

There is now hope that a major investment toward that end will launch this year. Long-term success, however, will depend on solving a major impediment: a deficit in the number of professionals to fill slots as preschool teachers, a deficit fueled largely by lower wages paid in the early education field.

Correcting this will mean a major commitment to resources and efficiency — and a realistic budgetary strategy. And it’s worth that heavy lift, if it yields something close to universal preschool access, providing a basis for achievement by the next generation.

But once these early steps are taken, they will need support to progress and time for ramp-up, as the state works to find a sustainable way to finance a robust network.

The first attempt to build a universal preschool system over a decade ago initially proposed funneling public funds to subsidize private preschools. That concept stalled on legal challenges until the state settled on a program of giving tuition subsidies directly to parents through its Preschool Open Doors program.

In 2020, lawmakers enacted the goal of providing preschool access to all children ages 3 and 4 by 2032. They followed last session with the appropriation of $200 million to build and renovate more school classrooms.

That basic approach should advance this year, with the administration’s “Ready Keiki” plan, championed by Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke.

Luke believes lawmakers will improve capacity this year. Putting teachers in classrooms — especially in the private sector, where their pay tends to be lower — is more difficult.

One measure moving through the Legislature this year is House Bill 961, which would deposit an unspecified additional amount into the Preschool Open Doors Fund. The bill would include 3-year-olds to be eligible for aid that 4-year olds can get now.

The Ready Keiki program’s ultimate aim is to put subsidies on a sliding scale so that families in a larger range of income levels would qualify for some assistance, Luke said. The goal is to serve some 4,000 families, compared with about 1,400 now.

The problem? This will put more hiring pressure on preschools that already are having problems filling teaching positions.

Luke said the public schools likely can staff 11 new pre-kindergarten classrooms that could open as soon as spring 2024. Teachers are available, and are waiting for the public classroom additions.

The struggle is principally with Hawaii’s private preschools, which, even before the pandemic, had lost about 20% of their workforce, said Keopu Reelitz, director of early learning and health policy for the nonprofit Hawai‘i Children’s Action Network.

There have been some encouraging moves to ease the curriculum load for early-education student teachers at the University of Hawaii, and to allow their studies to begin at the high-school level, Luke said.

But it is a question of better pay, in the end, Reelitz rightly added. HB 547 would fund a pilot program to increase pay, starting with programs for infants and toddlers. It deserves further discussion. Retaining early-care and preschool professionals is as important as recruitment.

Early education enhances the prospects of children who will take the reins of Hawaii’s society and economy one day. Having access to preschool also supports the existing workforce: their parents. Fortunately, more and more leaders have grasped that reality. They should demonstrate that commitment, this legislative session.