Posted on: Wednesday, July 14, 2004
New law to alter under-5 schooling
By Lynda Arakawa
Advertiser Capitol Bureau
Beginning in 2006, children who turn 5 after Aug. 1 will attend a junior kindergarten for a year before entering regular kindergarten, under a bill Gov. Linda Lingle signed into law yesterday.
The new law allows for some flexibility to move the children into whichever level is most appropriate and allows children to be promoted directly from junior kindergarten to the first grade. Supporters of the bill have pointed to recent studies that show younger students in kindergarten classes are more likely to have discipline problems and need remedial services because they lag behind their older classmates developmentally.
Currently, children who turn 5 by Dec. 31 are allowed to enter kindergarten.
Liz Chun, executive director of Good Beginnings Alliance, said children who don't receive early childhood education can start school up to two years behind and often never catch up. She called the additional year in junior kindergarten "a gift of time.
"Changing the kindergarten age is the first step to addressing the educational needs of our young children," she said. "It provides Hawai'i an opportunity to create learning environments that will improve student achievement."
Lingle also signed a bill that revises the Democrats' education reform package passed this year, but she promised to push for more changes next year.
"The bill wasn't what we had hoped to achieve in this session, but it does bring about certain improvements," Lingle said.
Under the new law, schools in the 2006-07 academic year will be financed by a weighted student formula that bases spending on student need, with priorities for low-income or special-education students, instead of enrollment. The intent is to steer money to students who need the most attention.
Other changes under the law include giving principals control of 70 percent of school operating budgets, up from about 15 percent today.
Schools will also have elected school community councils in the 2005-06 year, comprising the principal, teachers, school staff, students, parents and other community representatives. Principals would have the power to draft a school's budget and curriculum — with the councils able to offer revisions — before the plans are sent to complex-area superintendents.
Lingle, who has pushed for locally elected school boards, said she wanted the new weighted student formula to begin a year earlier and for principals to control 90 percent of their school budgets.
Other bills Lingle signed yesterday:
Reach Lynda Arakawa at larakawa@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 525-8070.
