Trisha
Howard, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 18, 2005
Preschool just may be the new kindergarten - in more ways than one.
Advocates for high-quality preschool programs say that children can and
should be learning the basics of language, math and social skills long
before the first day of kindergarten - not by sitting at desks and
completing worksheets but by playing and exploring the world around them.
Studies show that children start learning at birth and that those who
participate in high-quality preschool programs do better academically in
the short term and in the long run.
But preschool often faces an uphill battle for funding.
"I think people generally believe that all children would benefit from
high-quality prekindergarten," said Libby Doggett, executive director of
the early childhood advocacy group Pre-K Now. "The difference is in how
states do that. ... I think it's the 'how-to' that most states are
struggling with."
Yet some researchers question whether preschool should be a part of the
public school system when financial resources are limited. Such
researchers also point out that the benefits of early childhood education
come not just from quality preschool but also from increased support and
education for families.
Only three states currently provide universal, voluntary access to
preschool: Oklahoma, Georgia and Florida, where prekindergarten was
recently launched three years after residents voted for a state-funded
program open to all 4-year-olds.
Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has been lauded for increasing state
spending on preschool by $30 million for each of the past three years,
even as the state faced down a budget crunch. Illinois is set to spend
$274 million on early childhood initiatives this year. About $30 million
of that pot will provide services for children from birth to age 3, who
have been identified as at risk of academic failure.
Missouri spends $96.3 million on preschool for special education students
ages 3 to 5.
But the state spends far less on the rest of its children, and the
investment drops off sharply after age 3. This year, while the state will
spend $31.3 million on its Parents as Teachers program, targeting children
3 and younger, it will spend just $14.7 million for Missouri Preschool
Project, which gives grants to school districts and private providers.
People know early childhood education is important, said Jo Anne Ralston,
director of early childhood education for the Missouri Department of
Elementary and Secondary Education. But some really hard choices need to
be made these days. You can't spend more than you have.
So the responsibility for early childhood education falls primarily to
private providers and individual school districts, which traditionally
rely on a mix of local, state and federal money and, in many cases,
student tuition.
Orchard Farm School District in St. Charles County, for example, finances
its all-day preschool program for 20 at-risk students with a combination
of district money, tuition of $55 a week and a $45,000 grant from the
Missouri Preschool Project.
"We would love to have an early childhood center, and I think there's a
need for it in our community, but we just can't afford that," said Barbara
Brown, the district's director of special services, adding that up to 50
families apply every year for the program's 20 seats.
The Ferguson-Florissant School District will provide free preschool for
nearly 500 students, even though it gets only $65,000 a year from the
Missouri Preschool Project. Joy Rouse, the district's director of early
education, considers herself a strong advocate for universal access to
preschool.
She points to her district's research that students who had participated
in Parents as Teachers or preschool did better academically in the long
run than those who hadn't. And students who participated in both programs
did even better than children who had gone through just one of the two
programs, Rouse said.
Missouri could do more to ensure access for every preschool student who
wants or needs it, she said.
"There's kindergarten for everybody," Rouse said. "We need early childhood
education for everybody."
