Friday, March 16, 2007

More States Offer Preschool

A new report from the National Institute for Early Education Research shows shows more and more states are adding pre-kindergarten programs as research highlights the importance of getting children ready to learn.

"Virtually every state has a very strong movement toward doing a better job with pre-k," said Arthur Rolnick, a senior vice president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis and part of a group of business leaders calling for giving low-income kids earlier access to public school.

A report released yesterday finds states spent at least $3.3 billion last year on pre-kindergarten. That doesn't include money from federal and local governments, which contribute to the state programs.

The state funding is up from $2.8 billion in 2005, according to the report by the National Institute for Early Education Research at New Jersey's Rutgers University.

In all, nearly 1 million children, or 20 percent of the country's 4-year-olds, were in state pre-kindergarten last year — up from 17 percent the previous year, the report found.

In Kentucky: (NIEER state profile)
Eleven percent of the 3-year olds, and 29 percent of the 4-year olds were enrolled in preschool. State spending was $2,398 per child; down from $3,157 per child in 2002.

State funding for [Kentucky's] program remained level from 2004-2005 to 2005-2006, resulting in the lowest per child funding in the history of Kentucky’s preschool education program. In some districts this led to cuts in hours of service, extra meals, services for children from over-income families, and transportation of Head Start children.

However, the Kentucky Legislature passed a budget for 2006-2007 that grants the state preschool education program an additional $23.5 million, for a total of $75.1 million in that program year.

This from the Washington Post.
The Honolulu Advertiser article here.

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