CFK Reports From: The Economic Promise of Investing in High-Quality Preschool: Using Early Education to Improve Economic Growth and the Fiscal Sustainability of States and the Nation Event: Forum Organized By: Committee for Economic Development Where/When: Willard Inter-Continental Hotel; July 25, 2006
Believing that early childhood education does more than prepare kids for kindergarten, an organization of business leaders, the Committee for Economic Development (CED), made the economic case for publicly funded high-quality universal preschool for all kids through their report, The Economic Promise of Investing in High-Quality Preschool.
On June 6, Californians will have a chance to vote on Proposition 82, which would provide voluntary, free preschool for all California four-year-olds by 2010. It’s the latest, and largest, effort at the state level to increase the supply of early education. Here are the main points and the key arguments, pro and con. This article comes from the May-June 2006 issue of Children’s Advocate, published by Action Alliance for Children.
Great teachers, plenty of books, toys and other materials, strong connections with parents and families – these are aspects of quality preschool that we hear a lot about. But early learning requires something else: safe and appealing space, in the right place. Gin Phillips looks at one model for bringing such spaces on-line: Atlanta’s Early Learning Property Management.
Even putting aside the difficult issue of legal status, immigrant families face some particular barriers to finding good early-education opportunities for their youngsters. This report looks at the situation in California. This article originally appeared in the March-April 2006 issue of the Children's Advocate, published by Action Alliance for Children.
Even Start is a federally funded effort to improve literacy in very low income families, so that kids will do better in school, and parents can participate in their children’s educations and improve their own life prospects. Now, a 56 percent cut in fiscal 2006 and a proposal from President Bush to eliminate all funding in fiscal 2007 has Even Start on the ropes. Cecilia Garcia takes a look at the program, and at the Bush administration’s claim that it doesn’t work.
Quality pre-K pays off for kids, families, and businesses, according growing body of research. But how can states fund sustainable programs? This report looks at the diversity of states’ approaches—for example, some target only 4-year-olds; some fund only programs in public schools; some focus on education, others include services like health care and parenting classes—and the strategies states are using to tap into stable funding sources. The report includes a list of “pros and cons” of specific funding streams.
Do state preschool programs make a difference for kids? In a word: yes, according to a rigorous assessment from the National Institute for Early Education Research. In a study of 5,071 kindergarten-age children in five states -- Michigan, New Jersey, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and West Virginia -- those who attended state-funded preschool programs scored higher on early language, literacy, and math tests. The differences were statistically significant, and applied to children of all economic backgrounds.
The National Center for Children in Poverty published a guide that will help state and community policymakers, agency officials, families, and other advocates to more effectively address the social and emotional challenges that prevent early school success. It includes a companion report that targets vulnerable young children, and a checklist to strengthen early childhood mental health and early intervention capacity.
More than a million three and four-year-olds now attend state funded pre-kindergarten programs, as state pre-K spending has shown the largest increase in five years, according to this Pre-K Now national report. Nationwide total pre-K funding nearly doubled over last year, as 30 states moved to increase funding for pre-K access, twice the number of states over FY05.
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