Pre-K

Full-Day-K Booming in Iowa, Massachusetts

If you build it, they will come. The Des Moines Register published a story this week about the West Des Moines school district, which will be doubling the number of its full-day kindergarten classrooms next year to accommodate the 600 students who enrolled for the program. Only 17 children had their names on the sign up list for half-day kindergarten. Heading east, 95 percent of kindergarten parents in Lexington, MA opted for a full-day program next year, the first year that FDK will be offered in the district. Like their counterparts in Iowa, Lexington administrators are facing challenges of finding teachers and classroom space to accommodate the higher enrollment.

Plan Underway to Consolidate California Preschool Programs

California State Superintendent of Instruction Jack O'Connell joined California lawmakers on Tuesday to unveil a legislative package that would combine the state's five early education and family programs into one, to be called the California State Preschool Program. The new program, which would include the existing California State Preschool Program, Full-Day State Preschool, the Pre-Kindergarten and Family Literacy Program, Pre-Kindergarten and Family Full Day, the General Care and Development Program would have an $816 million budget, making it the largest preschool program in the country. Local government officials praised the plan, which is designed to help streamline services and cut administrative costs. Currently some local educational agencies administer all five programs at once; with the new umbrella program they say they can redirect funding once used for paper-pushing towards instruction.

It's National Teacher Appreciation Week, the time of year when we thank teachers for the hard work they do to educate the nation's children. But which teachers are we talking about? Research shows that early education is just as important the K-12 years, providing an important and fundamental base for success in the later grades. Yet our early education teachers rarely get the amount of recognition they deserve. Here are two ways to appreciate the nation's pre-k educators:

Increased Funding for Early Ed in Michigan

Lawmakers in Michigan are planning to direct $5 million in additional funding to Head Start Programs in the state. Though the funds are meant to increase enrollment in the program, some of the money will go to reopen Head Start centers that closed this year because of a decrease in funding last year. Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm's budget for FY 2009 also proposes to increase funding for the state pre-k program, the Michigan Great Start Readiness Program, by 26 percent.

On Tuesday, the Hawai'i legislature passed legislation to lay the foundation for a pre-k and early education system in the state. Senate Bill 2878 authorizes the creation of a state Early Learning Council, also known as "Keiki First Steps," that would work to expand and improve the quality of early education services in the state and serve as the governing body for Hawai'i's early education system. The legislation also authorizes the Early Learning Council to make grants to early education providers and provides support for pre-k facilities.

Twenty-seven governors mentioned pre-k or early education initiatives in their State of the State addresses this year, but how many followed up their rhetoric with action? Pre-K Now takes a look in the just-released "Leadership Matters: Governors' Pre-K Proposals Fiscal Year 2009," their annual barometer of governors' priorities when it comes to funding pre-k and early education.

This year the awards go to Alabama governor Bob Riley (R), who proposed a 174 percent increase in the state's First Class pre-k program, and Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick (D), who hopes to increase funding for the state's universal preschool program by 22 percent. Pre-K Now offers further recognition to governors in Virginia, Florida, Iowa, and New Jersey, rounding out a bipartisan team of state leaders pushing for pre-k in the face of mounting budget deficits. All in all, twenty-one governors have either proposed or secured increased funding for pre-k in FY 2009. Eight more governors propose flat-funding existing pre-k programs.

Following the First 5 Dollars in California

California's First 5 program funds many preschool and early childhood programs in the state, but savvy parents have used grants from the zero-to-five program for everything from child ice-skating lessons, marriage workshops, and a Santa Claus costume. The "Parent Action Grants," which are worth up to $11,000 over three years and disbursed at the wide discretion of 58 county commissions, are intended to foster parent leadership and child advocacy. But some wonder if the money would be better spent on expanding early childhood programs for low-income children, rather than funding projects that are often designed by upper and middle class parents. First 5 had a budget of $564 million in 2007, funded by revenue from a voter-approved cigarette tax.

How are young children in America doing? A new report looks at the data and comes up with some pretty good news—as well as a few red flags. Young children’s overall well-being has improved since 1994, with particular improvements in children’s safety and educational attainment. But other trends—such as rising obesity for even young children and a growing number of low-birth-weight babies—still give cause for concern.

Today’s Democratic presidential primary in Pennsylvania is focusing national media attention on the state, so we at Early Ed Watch thought we’d use the occasion to look at what’s happening with early education in Pennsylvania—actually, quite a lot! Pennsylvania currently supports several different initiatives that seek to improve early education quality and access in the state:

Modest Boost for Pre-K in Alabama

Alabama's education budget suffered a $375 million cut this week, but at least there was some money left for pre-k. The budget plan, as approved Wednesday by the House Education Committee includes $10 million to expand the state pre-k program, which serves about 1,000 four-year olds in the state. This amount was less than the $20 million that Gov. Bob Riley (R), who hopes to triple the state's pre-k enrollment by 2011, originally requested.