PUHI — Gov. Neil Abercrombie spent Friday on island, visiting school students and lending his support to the Kaua‘i Philippines Cultural Center and the Kaua‘i Raceway Park in the form of financial aid. He also made clear his commitment to
PUHI — Gov. Neil Abercrombie spent Friday on island, visiting school students and lending his support to the Kaua‘i Philippines Cultural Center and the Kaua‘i Raceway Park in the form of financial aid.
He also made clear his commitment to early childhood education initiative, after spending the morning with students at Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School.
Abercrombie unveiled an ambitious education initiative at a rally Thursday at the Capitol Rotunda. He said the state plan is in line with a national push to support universal preschool.
“We are riding that wave now and this draft is part of that,” Abercrombie said in an interview with The Garden Island. “I believe this proposal and the initiative can be the surfboard on that wave of interest, commitment and focus.”
The initiative calls for convenient and affordable access to quality preschool programs, using a sliding fee scale and would be free to low-income families. It would also be diverse by contracting a mix of public, private, nonprofit and faith-based providers.
The governor said he is pleased with Keiki to Career Kaua‘i, a public and private initiative coordinated by the Kaua‘i Planning & Action Alliance, a local network of business, education, human service and youth programs.
The Kaua‘i program has a goal of building a holistic “cradle to career” support system. It is based on the framework of Ready by 21, an initiative designed to ensure keiki are “ready to learn and ready for life.”
“I got behind Keiki to Career Kaua‘i 100 percent and told them it is astonishingly thorough and inspiring,” Abercrombie said.
The first phase of the governor’s initiative is about getting the youngest kids prepared for kindergarten. He emphasized around 5,000 children across the state are at risk of not attending preschool because of poverty and affordability.
“We can’t have that,” Abercrombie said. “You cannot, in effect, say to a child that ‘If you are lucky enough to have the right parents, or the right guardians, or the right financial circumstances, then you are going to be OK. But if you are not, then you are out of luck and too bad’.”
The governor said this initiative sets curriculum standards that ensure children will develop their math, reading and social building blocks prior to kindergarten. As the children enter primary school, the initiative will work to provide computers and tablets for classroom use as a statewide commitment.
The dividends of making this kind of investment would pay off in human terms and dollar terms by ensuring people are educated and employed, leading to more stable families and fewer social ills, he said.
“I don’t look at that as an expenditure, and I have a question to those who raise such an issue,” he said. “How much would it cost if we don’t do that?”
In providing public dollars, the initiative has the ability to ensure that standards of health, curriculum, nutrition and facility quality and safety are followed. Kaua‘i Community College plans to upgrade the Na Kama Pono lab preschool, which is set to close June 1 to rebuild the program, to meet 21st century needs. One of those needs is to certify instructors as the demand for preschool teachers grow, and plans are in the works to build two structures.
“They see this coming and want to be on cusp of what is happening,” Abercrombie said. “All credit for KCC for anticipating this.”
The demand will fuel the preschool as a business opportunity, he said. The initiative helps to prevent the tendency of putting some children at risk of getting passed by for equal access to education — most often the lower income and single-parent category.
He said the initiative is like a big wave with a lot of kinetic energy. The wave ends up in the sand and dissipates, and if the children aren’t riding it when it comes along, then it is gone.
“Every day they go without the stimulation, support and facilities necessary to support the abilities and capacities they have, then it is gone, and it is lost,” he said.
“You don’t have to have an argument that you need clean water, then why should we have to make an argument that you need educated children?”
• Tom LaVenture, staff writer, can be reached at 245-0424 or tlaventure@thegardenisland.com.
