Lawmakers who have reviewed a proposal for moving the state toward a universal preschool system see problems and perils ahead.

The plan would be expensive and might create a new bureaucracy in a state that has, it must be said, educational bureaucracy enough.

Still, this is hardly reason to shrink from what might be the single most important step Hawai'i can take to ensure a healthy future for its people.

The research is clear: Giving every child the opportunity for a quality preschool experience is the best possible measure of long-term educational success. And success in school is perhaps the No. 1 measure of success in life, meaning the individual contributes to society rather than drains it through social services, welfare, criminal intervention and the like.

Legislators understand this intuitively and, in response, appointed a task force last year to look into how Hawai'i can achieve a universal preschool system.

The task force came up with a number of ideas, many of them expensive, at least in the short term. And it recommended the formation of a new government agency, a public-private Early Learning Authority, that would coordinate early childhood education statewide.

The early reaction from some legislators and from the administration of Gov. Linda Lingle was: "Why another level of bureaucracy?"

And they have a point. The outlines of a comprehensive early childhood education system are already in place, when one combines private efforts with various state and federal efforts. It may not be necessary to create another overlay of bureaucracy.

What is needed, however, is commitment and a willingness to spend money now for a system that will pay off in proven social benefits for generations to come. One possible avenue is to work through the charter school movement.

Lawmakers asked for a plan. They got one. If it is too bureaucratic for their liking, then the task ahead is to take the best ideas on the table and convert them to reality.

Politically, this won't be easy. The big payoff from a commitment to universal early childhood education today won't come until most, if not all, of the current officeholders are long gone.

But it is the best possible legacy that today's policy-makers can leave for the generations to come. No more study. Let's do it.