There has been much debate about the proposed state investment in early education.
Some dispute the role government should take and the responsibility we, as a society, have to ensure children succeed when the family unit is not willing or able to provide the building blocks for success. But a look at the overall performance of Hawaii’s graduates clearly shows that we must do something differently.
Preschool education can make a significant difference. Research repeatedly confirms that the investment made in children’s development and education in the early years correlates to their success in school and life. Because the brain experiences the greatest rate of growth during the pre-kindergarten years, it is indisputably the time to expose them to rich spoken and print vocabulary and a love of learning.
Public/private partnerships that maximize human and financial resources make good economic sense. Rather than recreating the wheel and developing an early education system solely within the Department of Education (DOE), the state proposes a system of standards and accountability for all programs that use the facilities and expertise of existing early education programs, including public schools, licensed preschools and, in Phase 2, private schools that serve 4-year-olds, leveraging existing resources for cost efficiencies.
Early educators working in these programs would also receive support to increase their knowledge and skills to improve learning outcomes for the additional low- and middle-income children they would be teaching in 2014.
This is why KCAA Preschools constructed Hawaii’s first development center for early educators, The Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Center for Early Education. Funded by local trusts and foundations in partnership with local businesses, and without any tax dollars, this $3.2 million facility is poised to provide Hawaii’s early educators, including private providers and DOE kindergarten teachers, a variety of learning opportunities.
Hawaii’s people have a history of investing in keiki. Long before most states had full-day voluntary kindergartens, The Samuel N. and Mary Castle Foundation sponsored John Dewey to educate Hawaii’s first cohort of progressive education kindergarten teachers. Financial support for tuition assistance for low-income families, funds for buildings and teacher training and outdoor and indoor equipment to aid instruction gave impetus to a private kindergarten system.
Hawaii’s nationally respected kindergartens gave a boost to Hawaii’s families while showing that children were much better prepared for first grade if they had had a challenging kindergarten education. Due to heavy demand and the need for safe places for children to learn while parents worked two or more jobs, the Territory of Hawaii initiated full-day publicly funded kindergartens as part of the DOE in 1943.
School readiness continues to garner philanthropic support from Hawaii’s foundations and many of its corporations. But private support is not enough. Public investment in pre-kindergarten is common on the U.S. mainland but has yet to be achieved here. We are encouraged by the support shown for this bold initiative by our leaders in the House and the Senate and look forward to working in partnership with the state to develop a strong school readiness program to help close the achievement gap.
