The lobbying effort by early childhood education majors Brooke Rehmann, Deandra Perry, Maegan Franco and Jenny Ford involved hosting West Maui Sen. Roz Baker, the chairwoman of the Senate's Ways and Means Committee, for an afternoon at the Head Start site on the college's Kahului campus.

The students engaged Baker in creating "gak," a stretchy, putty-type dough preschoolers use for play, while providing information on the challenges of the early childhood education field and the difficulties families face with covering the cost of preschool and other educational programs for young children.

As part of their presentation, the students highlighted what they believed were two important statistics in the field of early childhood education: First, the average preschool teacher earns only $24,000 a year in Hawaii; and the typical monthly cost of preschool here is $545 per child.

Teacher salaries are way too low, the students said, while the price of preschool is out of reach for many families.

The students also pointed out a study that concluded that for every dollar spent on a high-quality early childhood program, the government could save as much as $7 in social costs. They argue that youngsters who get preschool and other early childhood program experiences are better prepared for kindergarten and more likely to succeed in school.

The students said they've also been following the work of the Early Learning Educational Task Force, which was created by legislation last session to develop a five-year plan for early childhood education in Hawaii.

Earlier this month, the task force issued its report and recommended drafting a 10-year plan to establish a statewide system that would start with programs for 4-year-old children.

The project cost estimate is $10.5 million for implementation of the early education program for 2009. The program, which will be known as Keiki First, will target underserved families unable to afford or get access to early education for their children.

The task force proposed that the early learning program would operate as a public-private partnership.

Kathy Murphy, the task force co-chairwoman who also serves as executive director of the Hawaii Association of the Education of Young Children, said she was glad to see the Maui students getting involved in legislative lobbying.

"I think it's wonderful that the students have wanted to embrace this," she said.

Baker, whose mother had a career in education, encouraged the students to continue to lobby legislators, perhaps partnering with kindergarten teachers to get the message across about the importance of early childhood education.

"I don't disagree with you. I support everything you've said," Baker said.

The reality, however, Baker said, is that lawmakers are asked every year to fund various programs, all of which are arguably worthy of receiving state support.

Central Maui Sen. Shan Tsutsui said he empathizes with the issues of early childhood education, being the father of three daughters, including a newborn.

Tsutsui said he agreed with the argument that an investment in early childhood reduces future costs in programs for adults.

There are a few government -subsidized programs to help disadvantaged families with preschool education, but there's a waiting list in Maui County.

According to the task force report, many of the state's preschools have full enrollments and face staff shortages and funding problems. The situation caused the task force in part to recommend that families be able to get access to a wide range of providers, including traditional preschools, licensed providers who operate out of their homes or family-child interaction learning.

The task force plan recommends that 80 percent of the cost for Keiki First be covered by government; the rest would be paid by private funding.

Rehmann said part of the challenge in getting support for early childhood education is dealing with the public's perception of preschools.

"I think there's a misconception of early childhood education; it's seen as baby-sitting," she said.

Rehmann said preschools, particularly the ones on Maui, are encouraging teachers and assistants to get more education and training in the field.

"If people saw us as professionals, we think they would agree that we should be paid as professionals," Franco added.

Rehmann said she's learned from her experience with young children that their parents all want to do what's best for their youngsters, but many of them need financial help to pay for preschool. Many parents also express interest in learning more about how to best support their children.

Despite the pay scale, the MCC students said they want to forge ahead with earning their degrees and with a career in early childhood education.

"I love this field," said Ford, who already has six years of experience in the early childhood field. "You just really get a good feeling out of it. I can't even describe it. I get goose bumps thinking about it."