Report: Growth in state-run preschool programs moving at snail’s pace
A new report on state-funded pre-kindergarten programs says that funding, enrollment and quality was up somewhat in 2014 but that the pace of progress was way too slow and that wide disparities exist in states across the country. Just how slow is slow? If the 2013-2014 growth in enrollment continues, it would take 150 years to reach 70 percent enrollment.
Quality early childhood education — recognized as a key element in preparing children for school – has become a priority of the Obama administration, which last year announced a $1 billion public-private spending initiative. The annual report on the state of preschool, published by the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers Graduate School of Education University, says that total state funding for pre-K increased in 2013-2014 by more than $116 million across 40 states plus the District of Columbia — a 1 percent increase in real dollars. Per child, that was a $61-dollar increase from the previous year, $4,125.
Enrollment was up, too, but by small amounts –a total of 8,535, after a loss of 4,000 seats in 2012-13 — leaving only 4 percent of 3-year-olds and 29 percent of 4-year-olds to be served in state-run pre-K. These figures do not include Head Start or special education; when combining general and special education enrollments, 32.4 percent of 4-year-olds and 7.4 percent of 3-year-olds are served by public pre-K. When including Head Start programs, 41.5 percent of 4-year-olds and 14.5 percent of 3-year-olds are served in these publicly funded programs.
However, the report said that these percentages are similar to last year’s, “indicating that enrollment in publicly-funded programs more generally has stagnated.” Also, there is overlap with some of these programs, so that the number of children being served by publicly funded preschool could be overstated, the report says. In fact, progress is so slow that the report says this:
At the 2013-2014 growth rate it would take about 75 years for states to reach 50 percent enrollment at age 4 and 150 years to reach 70 percent enrollment. Even a return to the average rate of growth since 2001-2002 would leave the nation 25 years away from enrolling 50 percent of 4-year-olds in state funded pre-K.
The National Institute for Early Education Research, or NIEER, cites 10 benchmarks as markers of a quality program, including a teacher with a bachelor’s degree and specialized training in early education –and the report says only 15 states could be verified as providing enough per-child funding to meet all 10. “As only 13 percent of the children enrolled in state-funded pre-K attend those programs, the vast majority of children served in state-funded pre-K are in programs where funding per child may be inadequate to provide a quality education,” the report says.
More than half a million children, or 40 percent of nationwide enrollment, were served in programs that met fewer than half of the quality standards benchmarks, it says, though an unprecedented seven programs improved their quality standards and gained against NIEER’s Quality Standards benchmarks checklist. Also,
*Five states (now including Mississippi) plus one of Louisiana’s three programs continue to meet all 10 benchmarks for state pre-K quality standards.
*Seventeen states met eight or more.
Here are the recommendations from the report:
State pre-K programs may have turned a corner in 2013-2014, but progress remains slow. If pre-K is to be made available to even all children under 200 percent of the poverty level within the next 20 years, state investments will have to grow at a much faster pace. At the 2013-2014 growth rate it would take about 75 years for states to reach 50 percent enrollment at age 4 and 150 years to reach 70 percent enrollment. Even a return to the average rate of growth since 2001-2002 would leave the nation 25 years away from enrolling 50 percent of 4-year-olds in state funded pre-K.States should set goals to increase enrollment much more rapidly than has been the case in the past, while raising quality standards and providing funding at the level needed to support those high standards. Every state is capable of delivering high quality pre-K to all 4-year-olds within 10 years, if they set high-standards and commit adequate resources. Many states could reach this goal in less than 10 years.Many states need to raise their quality standards for pre-K and implement policies to ensure continuous improvement. Without sufficient quality, programs will not fulfill their promise with respect to children’s learning and development or longterm economic returns. NIEER’s 10 benchmarks for quality standards are a starting place for state policy.Particularly worrying is the number of states with inadequate requirements for preschool teacher preparation. A new Institute of Medicine and National Research Council report calls for allReport: Growth in state-run preschool programs moving at snail’s pace - The Washington Post:
