Consider an education program so effective that its impact can be measured 19 years later, so well-studied that it can be backed up with decades of scientific evidence on children's improved skills in math and reading, and so impressive to policymakers that it continues to be championed around the country 40 years after its launch.

February 17: All Eyes on Illinois…
February 19: Duncan’s Record in Chicago
February 23: Q-and-A with Barbara Bowman
Today: What’s been cut

These are the superlatives that come with Chicago's Child Parent Centers. So you might figure they're flourishing as part of the Chicago Public Schools' early childhood programs, right? Not so. Their numbers are dwindling. In the mid-1980s, there were at least 25 CPCs serving more than 1,500 children. By 2006, there were 13. Today, 11 are still open, according to the Promising Practices Network. Enrollment in 2009, as reported by the Chicago Public Schools, is down to 670, less than half of what it once was. It now represents just 2 percent of the system's total preschool enrollment.

The distressing story of the CPCs needs to be told. In this series, we have examined Illinois's early childhood framework and its Preschool for All program, as well as U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan's record in Chicago. Both offer helpful lessons for structuring and funding early childhood programs. But the CPCs offer some of the strongest lessons of all, and their closures send a warning about how difficult it can be to sustain the programs that have been shown to do the most good.  It's a shame that even in an environment brimming with early childhood advocates, the CPCs haven't been able to gain ground. And it begs the question: If Chicago can't make this happen, who can?

For the third installment in our series on Illinois and Chicago, Early Ed Watch talked to Barbara T. Bowman, chief early childhood education officer for the Chicago Public Schools. Bowman's experience runs deep. She co-founded the Erikson Institute and has served as president of the NAEYC. Early childhood advocates say she will probably be named to the Presidential Early Learning Council that President Obama has pledged to create. At the moment, she said, she is a consultant to the U.S. Department of Education, "making recommendations to Arne Duncan on how to improve the department's emphasis on early childhood."

When Arne Duncan was tapped to become the new U.S. Secretary of Education, early-education advocates praised the choice. (We, too, were pleased.) Media reports and interviews with Duncan's colleagues, not to mention Duncan's own words, have signaled his strong grasp of the importance of early education. Now everyone wants to know: How will this translate at the federal level? 

Previous: All Eyes on Illinois…
Today: Duncan’s Record in Chicago
Next week: Q-and-A with Barbara Bowman
Next week: What’s been cut

On Tuesday we showed how Illinois's state-wide approach provides a potential framework for increased federal involvement. Today we look at Chicago, where Duncan was chief executive officer of the city's public school system from 2001 to 2008. Continuing the work of his predecessors, Duncan baked early education into the public school system, and the number of children enrolled in publicly funded programs for 3- to 5-year-olds increased by several thousand over the past several years to more than 30,000 as of last month. (The number rises to nearly 39,000 if you count infants and toddlers.) 

But Duncan didn't make these cookies from scratch. He started with a ready-to-mix box of ingredients and many batches already in the oven. He was blessed with the support of a mayor and governor who believed in early childhood funding; a new state-wide funding stream called Preschool for All; a band of fiercely devoted advocates for early childhood with national reputations; an internationally renowned research center for early childhood -- the Erikson Institute -- in his own backyard; and decades of vetted research showing the effectiveness of Chicago's Child-Parent Centers.

Now that President Obama has signed the stimulus legislation into law, early education supporters can shift their speculative energy toward what the administration's broader early childhood agenda will look like. During the 2008 campaign, Obama promised a substantial, $10 billion investment in early education programs, including new "Early Learning Challenge Grants" to states, but provided few details about what those programs would look like in practice.