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Early Childhood Day at the Capitol

Wayne Yoshioka

It was Early Childhood Day at the Capitol and pre-school students rallied for a number of bills before the legislature that impact them.  Children’s Action Network executive director, Deborah Zysman.

“So there’s a couple of really critical bills to help our youngest keiki.  First of all, we are rallying to expand public preschool both in the Executive Office of Early Learning and within the Charter Schools. So, we’ve got some growing programs in public preschool for our 4 year-olds and we wanna see those continue to grow.  The second thing we are rallying behind are some bills to expand what’s called the child and dependent care tax credit.  So, from our middle-income families who are paying for child care out-of-pocket, giving them a bigger tax refunds when they pay their state taxes in April.  So they get money back and right now, there’s a very small tax credit.  We wanna see it much larger and closer to the actual cost of child care.”

Early Childhood Day is an annual event during the legislative session.

Wayne Yoshioka
Wayne Yoshioka is an award-winning journalist who has worked in television, print and radio in Hawaiʻi. He also has been on both sides of politics as a state departmental appointee and political/government reporter. He covered Hurricane Iwa (1982) as a TV reporter; was the State Department of Defense/Civil Defense spokesperson for Hurricane Iniki (1992); and, commanded a public affairs detachment in Afghanistan (2006). He has a master's degree in Communication from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and is a decorated combat veteran (Legion of Merit, Bronze Star and 22 other commendation/service medals). He resides in Honolulu.
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