Posted on: Tuesday, March 23, 2004
ISLAND VOICES
We must focus on preschool
By Liz Chun
Executive director of Good Beginnings Alliance
Constructing a system of quality care and education for Hawai'i's young children is our state's next great educational challenge. True, the obstacles are often daunting; parents lack affordable options, and preschools struggle to hire and retain degreed teachers who make $10 to $12 an hour.
Still, we have seen many promising advances in the past five years. Federal resources helping low-income working parents send their child to preschool have grown, from around $20 million in 1997 to over $50 million today. The number of high-quality, accredited preschools has increased dramatically. Kamehameha Schools' strategic plan commits them to extend their services to cover a third of eligible children ages 0-4 within the next 10 years.
As we collectively strive to build a high-quality system of care and education for our young children, there remains a missing ingredient: state resources.
The amount of state money dedicated to helping parents afford child care has not changed in the past 15 years.
In fact, the National Institute for Early Education Research recently released a study showing that Hawai'i's per capita state commitment to 3-year-olds is dead last in the country.
Despite bureaucratic delays, Hawai'i's Pre-Plus program represents a rare investment of state resources in early childhood. This project provides a creative attempt to address the critical need for more preschool facilities.
For this program to succeed, it will require all departments (county, state and federal) to work together to achieve the results we want: more preschool opportunities for our children.
Right now, kindergarten teachers tell us that half their students enter up to two years behind. Often, they never catch up. Filled with promise today, these children are likely to be the dropouts of tomorrow. This horrifying fact should not surprise us. Less than 53 percent of our low-income 3- and 4-year-olds get help to attend preschool.
As a state, we spend millions upon millions on remedial education, a growing prison population, welfare benefits and crime prevention. Decades of research have given us a better solution: Investing in quality early childhood education will save Hawai'i up to seven times as much as is spent.
This investment will dramatically increase student achievement, strengthen families, prevent drug use and addiction, and help working parents increase their productivity.
We have an opportunity to greatly improve the chances of the 7,000 low-income 3- and 4-year-olds whose working parents cannot afford preschool.
Change does not occur without power, influence and authority. It is time for our leaders to unite for our children. We must seek cost-effective solutions, increase the quality and professionalization of the early childhood field and improve the readiness of our children for school. We cannot let bureaucratic hurdles or political roadblocks derail our progress.
In the late 1800s, Hawai'i was widely acknowledged as a leader in universally available early childhood education. It was understood that kindergarten education was necessary to hold our multicultural society together. We all have a shared responsibility if Hawai'i is to regain this international reputation.
Give our young children the head start they need to succeed in school and in life.
Making quality preschool available to all is economically critical, academically smart and, most important, morally imperative.
