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As the state embarks on its ambitious plan to provide universal access to preschool by creating 465 new classrooms by 2032, among the most frequently asked questions by stakeholders is: How will so many additional preschool teachers be found in the midst of of the state’s chronic teacher shortage?
Complicating matters are questions about whether 3- and 4-year-olds should be taught separately; if so, what credentials, salary levels, and union representation would apply to teachers in each age group; and whether historically low-paid preschool workers will see pay rise to levels that attract and keep more in the profession.
Lt. Governor Sylvia Luke last week unveiled the “Ready Keiki” plan to create universal preschool access for all of Hawaii’s 3- and 4-year-olds by 2032. Of the state’s 35,272 children in those age groups, only one just over half are being served by pre-K classrooms, 95% of them in licensed private institutions. Figuring the 20% of the rest will typically opt out, Luke says, the state aims to provide preschool access for 9,297 more keiki. Public preschool students would attend at no cost, she said.
“A significant number of kids don’t go to preschool because parents can’t afford it or it’s not accessible near where they live,” Luke said Friday in an interview on the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s “Spotlight Hawaii” live broadcast. “And when you think about it that way, it’s really a problem of social injustice.”
The plan to create 465 classrooms, at 20 children per classroom, uses multiple public, private, and philanthropic strategies to have 80 new classrooms ready to serve preschoolers by August 2024, and approximately 50 new classrooms each following year. Luke said in an update that he is in talks to see if at least some of the first classes could open this fall.
The Legislature has appropriated $200 million to be spent by June 20, 2024 to break ground, but millions in additional construction costs are expected.
And each of the 465 classrooms will likely require at least one teacher and one teaching assistant.
shortage persists
But Hawaii’s public school system, like many school systems across the country, has long suffered from a persistent teacher shortage. As of December 1, Hawaii public schools had 737 open teacher positions, about 6% of all positions, according to data from the state Department of Education.
Luke said Hawaii education officials have told him the local teacher shortage is “mostly at the high school level and in specific subject areas, and not so much at the pre-K elementary (level).
She added that based on her team’s research, there are “potentially around 1,000 teachers available with an early education degree” that allows them to teach preschool through third grade, “and we’ve identified around 100 teachers who can potentially work right now.” .
When the state Department of Education was asked to confirm those numbers, DOE Director of Communications Nanea Kalani responded via email: “It is my understanding that the Lieutenant Governor and her team have identified potential teachers, including current teachers, newly graduates and retired teachers. Strengthening our workforce portfolio is something we will need to work on collectively with all partners.”
Increasing retirements and resignations during the COVID-19 pandemic have not helped teachers count. There were 1,230 voluntary resignations of Hawaii public school teachers in the 2021-2022 school year, compared to an average of 1,071 per year in the 2017-2018 through 2020-2021 school years, according to data from the state Department of Education.
The National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers’ union, called the nation’s teacher shortage a “five-alarm crisis” and estimated at the start of the school year that the US is short about 300,000 teachers and staff. support.
graduates needed
Many education leaders agree that Hawaii’s teaching colleges will need to increase their number of graduates if they are to alleviate existing teacher shortages and meet the increased demand that new preschools will create.
The University of Hawaii Manoa College of Education, for its part, will need to gradually increase its graduate output from the current 350 a year to 500 or more, said its dean, Nathan Murata. And it will have to look to grow from the few dozen of them each year that specialize in early childhood education, he said.
Murata said he is encouraged by what he believes is an unprecedented level of drive and cooperation between public, private and philanthropic entities to grow the local pool of teachers.
For example, there are strong talks to institute “teacher academies” with preschool classrooms in all 10 classrooms at the University of Hawaii and some local high schools; Luke has said that Waipahu, Nanakuli and Mililani have volunteered to begin with.
“These will not just be preschools to provide services to the community, but they will also be (professional) teaching pathways so that students can get into the classroom, have hands-on experience and real experience,” Luke said.
Murata said better articulation arrangements are also being developed so that students can more easily transition from earning their two-year associate degrees at UH community colleges to working at upcoming preschools while continuing to study toward a degree in education from UH. four years.
Other local institutions that Luke says are being called upon to increase teacher production include UH West Oahu and the private Chaminade University. Kalani noted that the DOE also attracts teachers from the University of the Pacific in Hawaii, Brigham Young University in Hawaii and the Teach for America program.
Yet the retention rate for Hawaii public school teachers after five years on the job stubbornly remained at just over 50% at the latest report.
“We can recruit ad nauseam, but if there’s a hole in the back of a leaky water barrel, we’ll never fill it,” Murata said.
In recent years, the state has stepped up marketing and recruiting, Murata noted, with lawmakers approving $164 million in 2022 to ease salary “compression” as well as pay gaps for hard-to-fill positions.
A cultural change along with such salary changes will be needed to persuade more young people to enter teaching, Murata said. “I think with recruiting, with marketing, with compensation packages… I think we’re shifting to a question of seeing teaching as a real profession that people can be proud of. I think we can get there, slowly. We are on a good path.”
Luke said he also expects spillover effects from a planned $40 million request to increase tuition subsidies that low- and moderate-income families can receive through the state’s Preschool Open Doors program to send their children to private preschools. Currently, the subsidies are available only for 4-year-olds, but the application would add 3-year-olds and increase the amount of the subsidy. Luke said the hope is that the money will encourage those private schools to increase preschool teacher hiring and pay levels.
The expansion of private preschools is important because some can offer extended hours beyond the typical early afternoon release time for public schools, Luke said. “One of the things that is attractive to a working parent … is making sure that you can drop off your child at 7 am and have the flexibility to pick up your son or daughter until 6 pm,” he said. . saying.
Low pay under scrutiny
How public and private preschools in Hawaii will compensate employees is of great interest because preschool teachers and child care workers in Hawaii and across the country have traditionally been underpaid.
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics defines preschool teachers and child care workers as different types of workers with different qualifications (see accompanying chart). The median salary for a preschool teacher with a two-year degree was $30,210 per year in 2021, while child care workers earned even less.
However, the handful of teachers who already teach the 943 students in preschool classes under the Hawaii State Executive Office for Early Learning and public charter schools already have the same HSTA contract and pay schedule as qualified teachers with K-12 license with four-year degrees.
The average salary for a Hawaii public school teacher in grades K-12 in 2020-2021 was $70,922, according to data from the National Education Association.
Generally speaking, “if you want to get the most qualified people (to become teachers), you have to show them you respect what they do and compensate them accordingly,” said Hawaii State Teachers Association President Osa Tui. Jr.
But the HSTA says that different types of services are needed for 3-year-olds versus 4-year-olds. That could have ramifications for how its teachers are paid and who would be included in the existing collective bargaining agreement between the HSTA and the state. Educational assistants, who typically hold two-year degrees, are represented by the Hawaii Government Employees Association at a lower pay scale.
“Three-year-olds would be considered daycare, and that’s not something the HSTA would stand for,” Tui said. “That’s when they become 4-year-olds, that’s when they would be under our highly qualified preschool teachers” and would come under the current HSTA contract.
There are also legal considerations. Luke has said that the Early Learning Executive Office will be the operating arm of the public preschools. But when Yuuko Arikawa-Cross, director of the Executive Office for Early Learning, was asked if age groups could be mixed at the state’s public preschools, she said preschools under her office are required by law to serve only boys. 4 years old . She noted that public charter schools that offer pre-kindergarten serve 3- and 4-year-olds, but only 11 of them do.
WHAT PRESCHOOL WORKERS EARN
preschool teachers
>> Work description: Educate and care for children under 5 years of age who have not yet entered kindergarten.
>> Typical basic education: associate degree
>> national median: $30,210 per year, or $14.52 per hour
>> Hawaii Median Annual Salary: $38,140 to $55,960
child care workers
>> Work description: Meeting the needs of children while helping to foster early development
>> Typical basic education: High school diploma or its equivalent
>> national median: $27,490 per year, or $13.22 per hour
>> Hawaii Median Annual Salary: $25,720 to $29,710
Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2021
