Posted on: Tuesday, May 17, 2005

EDITORIAL
Investing in preschool will pay off in spades

The Lingle administration's $5 million boost in annual "Open Doors" preschool tuition aid to low- and middle-income families is a prudent investment in the well-being of Hawai'i's children. Leaders also plan to use federal welfare funds to extend preschool or childcare to even more children.

But although the financial assists are more than welcome, they can't bridge all the gaps in the Islands' preschool education network.

While grants will help, there remains a significant capacity problem at licensed preschools, which now list only 415 vacancies for 1,000 children estimated to start in July.

The Pre-Plus program has been working for the past three years to help fill the need for more preschool classes. Although delays in opening the sites on existing school campuses have frustrated waiting parents, the program has managed to launch 11 preschools, with two more due to open this year.

That's encouraging, but more needs to be done. Officials wisely have refocused on sites that needed fewer building-code upgrades, an issue that has slowed the Pre-Plus program to date. The public-private partnership — the state provides the buildings rent-free on school grounds, and licensed and accredited private-school providers bid to operate the preschools — still represents the most cost-effective solution to the classroom shortage.

The time is long overdue to pull out all the stops to meet our growing need and better serve Hawai'i's children. Studies repeatedly show that investing in early childhood education — or the first five years — yields significant long-term educational benefits and greater overall success.

This infusion of tuition aid is a worthy start. When more families are positioned to pay for preschool services, a market is created that the private sector surely will step up to fill. It is certainly an investment that will continue to pay off for years to come.