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Editor’s Note: Matt LoPresti is a candidate for state House District 41 in Ewa Beach.

There is a measure that passed through the Senate Education Committee earlier this week written to increase funds for athletics programs around the state. passed unanimously in the very same committee that has failed to find the money to fully fund education for 4-year-olds, provide A/C for any of the 10 most stifling schools on the DOE “hot list”, build a badly needed third high school for the Ewa plain, or offer even simpler things like a test that allows those late-born 4-year-olds who are ready for kindergarten to enroll in kindergarten.

Our Legislature, it seems cannot find money to fund the most basic aspects of education, such as access and infrastructure, but athletics seems to be a no brainer. I find this immensely disturbing as a parent, an educator and a taxpayer.

While athletics can be valuable for some students it does not and should not even begin to rank in a budget consideration when compared to current lack of budgeting and fundamental uncertainties regarding early childhood education in this state. In the current context, however, this move is especially disconcerting given that additional funds are being directed to sports in the aftermath of the government dismantling state-run Junior K and forcing 5,000 Hawaii families of late-born 4-year-olds to enroll their child into what will be, for many of these kids, a third unnecessary (but required) year of preschool without any state support whatsoever.

Mandated pre-school is a good thing, given that many would otherwise not send their children to preschool, but not all families fail to provide for their kids. What these new rules do in conjunction with the requirement that late born four year olds are no longer allowed in kindergarten is punish the parents and families who have already prepared their children for school and reward those who have not.

It does this by shifting the financial burden of kindergarten education, provided by the state, on to families in forcing them to wait a year and also mandating them to send their kids to preschool the year before entering kindergarten, regardless of how many previous years they have already spent there. Those families who statistically might otherwise not send their kids to preschool are the very ones who will receive the financial aid for their kids, while those who statistically do send their kids to preschool anyway, must do so again for an extra year at their own expense.

If preschool is to be universally mandated then it ought to be universally funded, but not only has the government failed to fully fund this mandated preschool, it has not even spent a dime to set up the option for children who are clearly ready for kindergarten to enroll in kindergarten this coming year, even though they may be late-born 4-year-olds. It bear repeating, because the thoughtless implementation of this law has outrageous consequences for the many families who were already responsible enough to send their kids to preschool, because they are being targeted and punished with an $8,000 bill and a delay of their child’s entire educational career by an entire year, while many who did not prepare them are being rewarded with an extra year to do so at the state’s expense.

In addition to the fact that many of these children and their families have spent their entire short lives being educated so they are ready for kindergarten this coming year but won’t be allowed in, by changing the rules without adequate warning, the state fundamentally undermined even the most basic family planning for local families like ours.

My wife and I, for example, spaced our children perfectly so that our first-born would be entering kindergarten when our second-born would need to enter day care. Without this simple but essential planning we would not have been able to afford to have a second child. But the state pulled the rug out from under us when they announced that our first-born would not be allowed to enter kindergarten this coming year – even though her own teachers place her at levels above some kindergartener skills already.

We know that our child and our family are not alone. Approximately 5,000 other families were not given enough time to plan for these changes or had their own family planning undermined, and now no financial assistance is forthcoming from the state for over 80 percent of these families. We will not qualify for the pittance of money designated to help a small number of families to pay for preschool, but having to finance another full year is mathematically impossible for us nonetheless – that is why we planned our family the way that we did in the first place. It is scenarios like our own that demonstrate why lawmakers have a responsibility to fully fund the universal 4-year-old education that they mandated and fund the testing for those who are ready to enroll in kindergarten this coming academic year.

If they fail to fund the relatively small amount needed to test kids ready to enroll in kindergarten and if they fail to fund the mandate that the legislative leadership implemented, then our own elected officials are doing nothing less than attacking the financial stability of families with children who just happened to have been born in the second half of the year. It is shortsighted, thoughtless planning like this that makes raising a family in Hawaii less and less of a viable option for middle-class families. We are already at the breaking point and adding $8,000 bill to those of us who already live paycheck to paycheck will financially break many families through no fault of their own.

For these lawmakers to ignore this situation for thousands of local families and say that they are going to spend money on sports instead is frankly immoral. To make children to continue to suffer in overcrowded and over-heated classrooms with temperatures over 90 degrees – wherein educational experiences are no longer even possible, and in which it would be illegal to force adults to work in an office building – is just plain shameful.

Given the limited funds for education, the choice is very simple, lawmakers can fulfill their duties to fund what they mandate and which our families have absolutely no control over and even less of ability to pay for, or they can fund a misguided athletics initiative that will allegedly help students to “stay motivated and succeed in the classroom” when the current reality is that 5,000 extra kids won’t even be allowed into a state classroom, while tens of thousands more are dehydrated, soaked with sweat and half-asleep. A child cannot succeed in a classroom if she is not allowed to enter one to begin with, and she certainly cannot “stay motivated” if all of her energy and strength is drained just trying to keep down her body heat while in one of these classrooms.

The sad reality is that the framers of this bill and the ones who voted in favor of it already know that all of this is true. By encouraging our community’s excellent coaches and dedicated athletics parents to come and support this measure they are automatically pitting parents who lack even basic infrastructure for their children’s education against those who surely would like to have, but in no similar way need these limited resources – at least not in a way that comes even remotely near the importance as those who don’t even have room for their kids in schools, or those who don’t even have rooms in schools where their children can actually learn. What we as citizens should do is work together to move beyond the dichotomy of “either/or” to “both/and” but in the meantime if funds are limited then we need to be sensible about the hierarchy of needs for public education.

Fund universal preschool. Fund tests so the state does not forcefully delay the educational lives of those who are ready. Fund reasonable learning environments. Do these first, and then, sure, if there is money left over we can talk about extra-curricular activities, but not before. Not if we are serious about our children’s future.
I am serious about my children’s future and my neighbors and friends are serious about their children’s future. We deserve lawmakers who represent this seriousness with the care it deserves.

About the author: Matt LoPresti, Ph.D. is a parent, professor of philosophy, and candidate for the state House of Representatives, District 41 in Ewa Beach.

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