[ OUR OPINION ]

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More funding needed
for preschool subsidies

THE ISSUE A poll released by a child advocacy group shows that an overwhelming percentage of Hawaii residents consider preschool as a key to academic success.

THE importance of a child's development during the first five years is well-established and is the reason for the enormous academic advantage of those children whose families can afford to send them to preschools. Nearly half of the children entering kindergarten in Hawaii are at a disadvantage because of that lack of affordability. The Lingle administration and the Democrat-controlled Legislature should seek to eliminate that inequity.

State Sen. Brian Kanno says he will introduce legislation to subsidize parents on a sliding scale, according to income, so families can afford to send their toddlers to preschool. Governor Lingle also is taking a close look at the problem. "The governor feels that early childhood education is an area that has bipartisan support," said Linda Smith, her senior policy adviser. That bipartisan support should result in children from Hawaii families being lined up together at the same educational starting gate.

A poll commissioned by Good Beginnings Alliance, a Hawaii nonprofit group that advocates for young children, affirms that such a concept is politically popular. The random survey of 400 Hawaii residents showed that 83 percent believe preschool boosts academic achievement, 78 percent believe the state should subsidize parents who cannot afford preschool costs and 60 percent are willing to pay more taxes to support that effort.

The poll's respondents are right. Studies have shown that 85 percent of a child's development occurs in the first five years of life. That reality has caused a huge gap between the academic abilities of children from high- and low-income families by the time they reach the age of 6.

Financial help already is available to low-income families for preschool by state agencies, Head Start, Kamehameha Schools and other programs. That has resulted in 60 percent of low-income families with 3- and 4-year-olds receiving preschool subsidies, according to Good Beginnings Alliance.

Many of the disadvantaged are children of middle-income families who don't qualify for subsidies and can't afford preschool costs. Alex Harris, the alliance's policy director, says a family with one child must earn $59,466 to afford the $517 monthly cost of high-quality preschool programs. According to the alliance's Web site, such programs can cost more than $600 a month. As a consequence, only 55 percent of all the state's 3- and 4-year-olds attend preschool -- a lower percentage than those from low-income families alone.

The state has an obligation to fix this problem by providing funds to assure preschool opportunities to a greater percentage of children from low-income families. Possibly using the sliding scale proposed by Kanno, subsidies also should be available to middle-income families who cannot now afford the cost.