Quality of Local Public Preschools: What can be done?

Realistically what can be done about this issue?
Problem: lack of quality teachers
Solution: Even if the legislature immediately provided $60 million to $75 million necessary for universal preschool, the state’s preschools do not have nearly the capacity or enough qualified teachers to cover the children. The primary reason Hawaii cannot attract and retain early childhood education teachers is low wages. In fact, qualified individuals can make more money waiting on tables than they can teaching preschool. If the state shifts investment in remedial education, welfare, and crime prevention to early childhood education, some of this money can be used to increase wages for teachers.
Perhaps the education administration could create new administrative rules so preschools would get paid more money for accepting Open Door children as a financial initiative to build capacity and improve teacher quality. Financial incentives for preschools that voluntarily implement higher quality standards can be created as well. To ensure that the children are only taught by quality teachers, higher standards for teacher qualification can also be put in place. Also, new training strategies such as online courses can be developed to make it easier for working teachers to become proficient in early childhood education.

Problem: money/state resources
Solution: The state spends millions and millions of dollars on remedial education, a growing prison population, welfare benefits and crime prevention. Instead, the state could shift societal investments from reactive polices such as those mentioned above to proactive solutions that will increase access to quality early childhood education. There is even research to support that investing in the education of young children will actually save Hawaii up to seven times as much as is spent. They must establish priorities and develop a long-range plan to properly fund programs.
Public-private partnerships for early childhood education can also be created. There can be a sliding fee based on the full cost of quality preschool programs and can be funded by the state. This partnership will be a funding strategy that could take advantage of existing resources provided by the private sector and have the efficiency of working through the private sector. Although there is a sliding fee, the public preschools and the state can benefit from the partnership because they do not have to pay any additional money for the facility and will perhaps save more money and time due to the private sectors’ expertise in business.

*Nothing will come cheap, but if our government leaders can raise the billions dollars necessary to build a rail/mass transit system that will have questionable benefits, then they should be able to raise the money to fund an early childhood education system with proven benefits.

Problem: need for additional preschool facilities
Solution: Use state funds to construct facilities located at existing public elementary schools, and funding to run the programs can come from the federal and private sources.

What are the “powers to be” not doing? Why?
“Powers to be” are NOT:
• making major new investments in programs for young children
• acknowledging and embracing early childhood education as a public responsibility
• creating a real system that ensures access to early education and helps families make sense of the many options that are available to them
• making a commitment to systematically train, hire, and retain qualified teachers
The main reason why the “powers to be” are not taking action to improve the quality of public preschools in the state is the lack of money and resources.

What impact could you have to change the current situation?
• volunteer at public preschools like Head Start to decrease the number of teachers that need to be hired and paid
• donate toys and supplies so that the state can save money and spend it on other things such as training for teachers, more preschool facilities, and salaries.
• hold a fundraiser to raise money and donate it to a preschool education organization
• increase awareness of the importance of early childhood education by creating flyers with information about nearby public preschools and the benefits

What do you foresee in the future if the solution(s) you’re advocating is/are not implemented or if conditions continue in their present state indefinitely?
Kindergarten teachers say that half of their students enter their class up to two years behind, and often these students never catch up. According to Liz Chun, executive director of Good Beginnings Alliance, these children are likely to be the dropouts of tomorrow. Since success in school is perhaps the number one measure of success in life, children who do not receive quality education drain society through social services, welfare, criminal intervention and the like, rather than contributing to society. As the number of dropouts increases, the amount of state money spent trying to support them will escalate, thus causing less money to be spent on early childhood education.