Hard work, sacrifice, and focus will never show up in tests.
-Lance Armstrong
"Funding for state pre-K programs has plummeted by more than $700 per child nationwide over the past decade," reports the National Institute of Early Education Research (NIEER) in its State of Preschool 2011 yearbook. The yearbook reported these findings:
- Per-student funding dropped by $145 in 2010-2011 alone, compared with the previous year.
- Overall funding for state pre-K programs, when adjusted for inflation, dipped for the second straight year, by $60 million nationally in 2010-2011.
- Some states are making progress, while others have taken steps backward. Maine, Kentucky, and Nebraska all raised per-child and total pre-K funding by more than 5 percent over the previous year. In addition, five states — Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, West Virginia, and Wisconsin — increased total funding by more than 5 percent from the previous year.
- Twenty-two states increased pre-K enrollment, ranging from small gains in California, Connecticut, Georgia, and Minnesota to 24 percent in Vermont.
- But Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Pennsylvania cut total state pre-K spending by 10 percent or more from the previous year.
- Nine states cut pre-K enrollment, from 1 percent in Kentucky, Nebraska, and North Carolina, to 12 percent in New Mexico. Arizona entirely eliminated its program. Counting Arizona, 11 states do not offer pre-K: Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming.
Exchange Public Policy Updates
Eric Karolak, from the Early Childhood Education Consortium, provides advocacy updates in each issue of Exchange. His most recent updates:
Comments (3)
Displaying All 3 CommentsUnited States
Not only did Georgia increase class size, it cut teacher salaries as well.
United States
I'm not sure what planet NIEER is on, but California has been cutting funding for child care and preschool every year since 2008. According to the Legislative Analyst's Office, the State Has Reduced Funding for CCD
Programs by About 25 Percent. Specific reductions include:
-Eliminated funding for approximately 20 percent of slots.
-Reduced maximum payment rates for license-exempt providers from 90 percent to 60 percent of licensed rates.
-Lowered income eligibility thresholds from 75 percent to 70 percent of state median income (SMI).
-Eliminated the “Latchkey” after school program.
-Reduced administrative allowances for Alternative Payment
(AP) agencies.
-Reduced reserve balances for Title 5 centers.
-Eliminated funding for the state’s Centralized Eligibility List.
-Reduced or eliminated several of the state’s quality
improvement projects.
Each of these changes had a corresponding decrease in funding.
NHDF Child Dev. Centers
Sacramento, California, United States
The information regarding a minor increase in state funding in California is incorrect. The programs serving infants, toddlers and preschool age children were cut by a minimum of 17% in 2011-12. The anticipated reduction for 2012-13 is approximately 40%
NHDF is a private non-profit foundation that has provided state funded early care and education programs in California since 1978.
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