Federal funding cut forces Mountain View preschool, four island sites to close

A federal funding cut is about to erase preschool seats, parent support and about 20 jobs across Hawaii Island, with Mountain View Ka Paalana Preschool and four other island sites set to close at the end of the school year. Nearly 250 children will be affected on the island, a blow that lands hardest in rural communities where childcare choices are already thin and families often depend on one trusted program for more than supervision alone.

Partners in Development Foundation said the closures follow a collapse in funding from the U.S. Department of Education’s Native Hawaiian Education Program, which had made up about 72 percent of the group’s budget before being cut to zero this year. Terry Nakamura, the foundation’s chief operating officer, said the programs had relied primarily on those grants and are now in the final year of three-year awards for Tutu and Me and Ka Paalana, which end at the end of August. The foundation said it can sustain only 19 of its 36 statewide sites.

That makes the shutdown far more than a single preschool closure. The programs reach children ages 0 to 5 and their caregivers, and a state funding request filed with the governor’s office said the family-child learning network serves more than 1,700 children and 2,700 caregivers across 37 communities and two virtual cohorts on five islands. The same request said the programs provide developmental screenings, counseling, financial literacy, health and nutrition support, employment readiness training, food, hygiene supplies and housing referrals.

On Hawaii Island, Ka Paalana’s role has been especially broad. The program is aimed at homeless and at-risk families, serves families on Hawaii Island, and has reached more than 6,500 people since it began. Parent Royce Kurihara described it as a safe, positive place families can count on, especially when housing is unstable, while family education coordinator Marchele Rapoza said the need in the area is high and the loss will hit hard.

The closures also sharpen a larger policy problem for the island and the state. Nearly 60 percent of the children in Partners in Development Foundation’s program are Native Hawaiian, and the programs have long operated in rural and low-income communities where public preschool access remains limited. Hawaii has set a goal of preschool access for all 3- and 4-year-olds by 2032, but lawmakers did not fully backfill early learning funding this session, leaving families with fewer options just as five more island sites disappear.