Hawaii’s families need more help with child care and early childhood education. The state has long recognized this, establishing its Executive Office on Early Learning in 2015 and creating a limited public prekindergarten program. There has been too little movement forward on this front, however, and in response, a movement is growing to impress politicians with the public desire for more action.

A recent survey commissioned by the Hawaii nonprofit group Commit to Keiki underscores the public’s sentiment, showing that an impressive 43% of respondents “strongly” support state-funded, community-based child care, early learning and family- support programs, while 31.5% “somewhat” support such programs.

“We don’t usually see numbers like this,” said Justin Wallin, CEO of the opinion research company commissioned to conduct the survey. “They’re stratospheric.”

The growing support could be tied to Hawaii’s rising cost of living: Parents need to work more just to keep up with expenses. Inflation is only adding to the burden. The Commit to Keiki coalition includes about 25 groups, ranging from education advocates to the Chamber of Commerce Hawaii.

A majority of the Hawaii residents surveyed said they would even support higher taxes in exchange for programs that benefit all young children; 24.5% of those surveyed said they would be “very” willing, and 32.4% said they would be “somewhat” supportive, for a total of 56.9%.

This is significant, given that Hawaii regularly ranks second or third among states for heaviest tax burden, and also has one of the highest costs of living in the nation.

As Hawaii’s Nov. 8 election for governor nears, 56.5% of respondents in the Commit to Keiki survey said they believe it’s the governor’s responsibility to increase access to early care and learning programs, and 71.2% said they were more likely to vote for a candidate who prioritized these services, among others benefiting children and families.

“There’s a disconnect between the values we hold close in Hawaii — that’s our protection of keiki, and support of our ohana across the islands — and the state budget, and how we invest in them,” said Kerrie Urosevich, steering committee co-chair for Commit to Keiki.

This is particularly clear when it comes to making progress on establishing statewide access to public pre-K.

In 2020, the state Legislature passed a measure calling for universal access to child care and learning programs for all 3- and 4-year-olds by 2032. However, there is still no plan to fund and roll out such programs. This is in part due to the pandemic, which restricted access by students of all ages to public education, but the need has not lessened.

In the 2019-2020 school year, Hawaii’s state-funded preschool served only 679 students, about 4% of the state’s 4-year-olds, according to the 2020 State of Preschool Yearbook.

There has been some progress. Last year, House Bill 1362 passed, creating an early childhood educator stipend program to help build up the available workforce. Hawaii’s Act 46, effective July 1, mandates collection of information about attendance at early learning programs, to help identify high priority regions for public pre-K.

That’s encouraging, but Hawaii’s preschool program has grown far too slowly.

A provision in the state Constitution that prohibits using state funds to support private educational institutions has been a roadblock to expanding public pre-K in past years. But the state needs to get past this obstacle and give parents relief.

Public pre-K in Hawaii needs funding and commitment; it’s long overdue.