Hawaii P-3 Receives $1.5 Million for Demonstration Project

As reported by the University of Hawaii, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation has given a $1.5 million award to Hawai‘i P-20’s early education program, Hawai‘i P-3. The funds will take the Hawaii P-20 council's current Kellogg-funded P-3 efforts "from capacity building toward shared public education transformation." The funds will also support a fifth demonstration project to improve alignment of early education to elementary schools, with the goal of children reading on grade level by grade 3.

As the Hawaii P-20 Partnerships for Education Web site makes abundantly clear, early learning is a core component of both their work and their leadership. In fact, not only is Hawaii one of the relatively rare states that explicitly includes the "P" in the P-20 council's agenda and membership, but Hawaii's P-20 council seems to be the only one in the nation that includes an explicit early learning representative as a council leader.

Would external funding--from a Kellogg or another philanthropy or business representative--increase the likelihood that other councils would follow Hawaii's lead and make early learning a core component of their work and leadership? Or does the commitment from council leadership need to be there first, and the funding will follow?