Bill advances that aims to use the state’s general fund to build preschools

By Marisa Yamane

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    HONOLULU (KITV) — Should the state build preschools? Some Hawaii legislators think the state should.

On Monday, the Hawaii Senate Committee on Education heard House Bill 2000, HD1.

The bill proposes to allocate an unspecified amount of money from the state’s general fund to the school facilities authority for the construction of preschool facilities.

The bill does not have a lot of specifics yet including how many preschools the state would build, or where they would be built, or how much the project would cost.

State Representative Sylvia Luke and members of the House Majority leadership introduced the bill.

During Monday’s hearing, there was only testimony in support of it.

“Culturally our Asian and Pacific Islander children are taught very young to be seen and not heard. This is a time when their brains are being developed, their speech patterns are being developed, and their motor coordination, so allowing us to have preschool for them develops a critical skill needed to be successful in school,” Laverne Moore testified on behalf of the Hawaii State Teachers Association.

“Since the start of the pandemic, Hawaii has lost over 3,600 preschool seats and at least six preschools and many more family child care providers, and so we believe that Hawaii’s keiki deserve better,” Kaui Burgess testified on behalf of Kamehameha Schools.

The Senate Committee on Education passed the measure with amendments.

The initial version of the bill had it taking effect on July 1, 2022. However, the version passed on Monday pushed it back to the year 2051, which lawmakers sometimes do to allow for more discussion.

The bill now moves to the Senate Ways and Means committee for consideration.

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