TKW Consulting

In an idea they believe will move Hawai'i closer to universal preschool for 4-year-olds, several leading educators and childcare advocates have recommended the state Legislature create a new authority that would make policy for and direct early-childhood education statewide.

The Early Learning Authority would be governed by a public and private board and could oversee as much as $160 million in state spending after a decade. It would help guide the work of a new institute to promote the training of preschool teachers and providers. A new nonprofit group would assist the authority with planning and early-learning districts on each major island.

"If Hawai'i does this, it will put us on the cutting edge of the country," said Randy Hitz, the dean of the College of Education at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa.

The recommendation, from a task force established last year by the Legislature,
presents some thorny issues. The task force did not specifically address, as state lawmakers wanted, the immediate need to give parents greater access to quality preschool. Instead, it proposed a new layer of government that could take years to gel and could control policy decisions normally handled by lawmakers and the governor.