As States’ Pre-K Funding Declines, Feds Offer Another Early Learning Challenge Round «

As States’ Pre-K Funding Declines, Feds Offer Another Early Learning Challenge Round «:

As States’ Pre-K Funding Declines, Feds Offer Another Early Learning Challenge Round

April 11, 2012 by Irene Sege

Photo: Alessandra Hartkopf for Strategies for Children

Over the past decade, pre-kindergarten enrollment across the country has increased, but states’ spending on pre-kindergarten has fallen 15% in real (inflation-adjusted) dollars, according to a report – “The State of Preschool 2011″ – released yesterday in Washington by the National Institute for Early Education Research. State funding for pre-k was down almost $60 million in 2010-11, compared with the previous school year, the annual report also found.

The news, however, was not all bad. In his remarks at yesterday’s NIEER event, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan referenced the previous day’s announcement of a new, albeit more modest, round of the federal Race to the Top – Early Learning Challenge. Massachusetts was one of nine states that