Wednesday, March 03, 2010

Southern States' Budget Cutting Endangers Pre-K Gains

This from the the nation's oldest education philanthropy, the Southern Education Foundation:

Southern states are in danger of losing critical, hard-earned gains in early childhood education - the South's most effective innovation in public education - if state legislatures in the region enact substantial cuts to pre-kindergarten programs (Pre-K), according to a report released on March 2 by the Southern Education Foundation in Atlanta.

The South leads the nation in offering state-funded Pre-K to America's three- and four-year-old children. Southern states in 2008 provided Pre-K to 20 percent of the region's three- and four-year-olds --- double the rate in the rest of the nation. SEF also reports that Southern states lead the nation with indicators of high quality and educational impact. Six of the ten states with the highest standards for Pre-K quality are in the South.

The Southern Pre-K programs are the region's "comparative advantage in public education," according to Lynn Huntley, SEF's President, because high-quality Pre-K is the only area in which Southern states lead the nation in providing high-quality education to students. The SEF report cites a wide range of recent independent studies demonstrating Pre-K's positive effects on young children's learning in areas of language, literacy and math skills in Southern states.

"Today, proposed budget cuts jeopardize the significant gains that many state-supported Pre-K programs in the South have begun to provide in getting small children school-ready and capable of achieving at higher levels in future grades," Huntley stated. "It makes no sense, no matter how severe the economic crisis faced by Southern state and local governments, to make damaging reductions in the availability of quality pre-kindergarten services for children."

In Kentucky, the recent adoption of more rigorous academic standards for elementary and secondary students makes it even more imperative to protect Pre-K funding, noted Robert F. Sexton, executive director of the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence. "Giving students the strongest possible start in quality preschool is the best way to ensure their later success in school and life," he noted.

In addition, recent research in the state proves the economic value of Pre-K investments, Sexton said. A University of Kentucky study found that every $1 invested in expanding quality preschool would yield a return of $5 in benefits for individuals and the state as a whole.

Southern legislatures are facing a collective shortfall of almost $30 billion in revenues, and many are considering deep cuts to education and related programs. In Virginia for example, legislators have submitted various budget amendments to cut or remove all state funds for the Virginia Preschool Initiative (VPI). The annual state General Fund for VPI is $75 million. In Georgia, Governor Sonny Perdue is proposing to gut the Pre-K program's resource coordinators who work with low income families to increase parental involvement and family support.

"Pre-K is already doing more for less in the South," noted Steve Suitts, SEF's Vice President, and the report's author. "In most Southern states Pre-K is delivering the greatest impact for the least cost." The SEF report points out that the costs per child for Pre-K are on average one-third less than K-12 per pupil expenditures. In Alabama, for example, Pre-K costs are closer to half the K-12 costs of public education.

"Southern states would save very little - practically nothing - from cuts to Pre-K," the SEF report states. Across the South, Pre-K programs make up about ½ of one percent of the states' entire budgets. Georgia's Pre-K, one of the largest programs in the South, constitutes a little more than one percent of the state budget, but those funds come out of Georgia lottery revenues - not tax dollars. And the Georgia lottery has increased revenues and holds nearly $1 billion in reserves.

SEF also reports that high-quality Pre-K will save revenues for states in the long run. In Louisiana, for example, for each dollar invested in high quality Pre-K, the state can realize as much as $8.20 in direct and indirect benefits over the next 40 years.

"The economic impact of Pre-K comes from the fact that high-quality Pre-K has a proven capacity to help a child from a low-income family stay on grade in school, stay out of trouble, graduate from high school, and continue to college. In this respect, a good job in the South in a global economy begins with Pre-K," SEF's Huntley stated.

"In a world economy, a state can enlarge its income and quality of life only if it increases the high school and college education of its residents," observed Suitts. "Most of the South has been behind the nation in educational attainment primarily because too many students are not school-ready, never catch up, and drop out. Pre-K is where this cycle can be broken. It is one area where the South can not afford cutbacks."

SOURCE: press release, thanks to Prichard

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