Pre-kindergarten a jumpstart for preschoolers
Karen Douglas of North Weymouth says she doesn't know where she'd be without pre-kindergarten. Or where her son would be, for that matter.
Douglas drops off 3 1/2-year-old John each workday morning at 7:30 at South Shore Day Care in Weymouth, a center funded with a mix of state and parent contributions. She then works until picking him up at 4:30 p.m.
Working would be impossible without the pre-K program, the CVS pharmacy technician said.
"He's there, and I can work," said Douglas, who pays $50 a day to enroll her son. "He loves it. The kids have fun, and they're learning social skills and motor skills."
Gov. Deval Patrick has championed dedicating more public funds to such programs, ideally joining Georgia, Florida and Oklahoma in having universal pre-K in public schools. Right now, many local parents with young children - struggling to find an affordable place for their kids to develop intellectually, socially and personally, and so they can work - insist the government should do more.
American schools made kindergarten a standard offering decades ago. It's taken until now for pre-kindergarten to see the beginnings of a national expansion.
Last year, 36 states - including Massachusetts - boosted funding to local school districts to pay for voluntary pre-K programs, to a collective record of $4.8 billion, reports the Washington-based advocacy group Pre-K Now.
Policymakers see pre-K as an investment that pays off - returning $1.16 on every dollar spent, by one Federal Reserve Bank estimate - by shaping developing minds while freeing up their parents to work. Increasingly pre-K is seen as an anti-poverty program, putting children on a path of lifelong education and productivity.
The cost remains an obstacle, however. States' spending on pre-k programs varies widely, from $1,085 per pre-K child in South Carolina to more than $9,800 per child in New Jersey.
Costs vs. benefits
In Massachusetts, Patrick campaigned on a pledge to expand pre-K programs. Yet he disappointed advocates when he didn't deliver in his first year.
Earlier this month, Patrick unveiled plans to boost funding for pre-K programs. Still, the spending amount - even if approved by lawmakers - is not expected to even approach the $600 million a year advocates say is needed for universal access to pre-K programs for the 240,000 3-, 4- and 5-year-olds in Massachusetts.
Some 70 percent, or 168,000 of the state's 3-, 4- and 5-year-olds, attend a formal early education program, according to the group Early Education for All. More than half of those attend center-based programs; the rest are taught in public pre-schools, family child-care homes, the homes of friends or relatives or in Head Start programs.
State funding for pre-K programs has gone up. Last year, the Legislature appropriated $7.1 million, up from $4.6 million in fiscal 2007, the first year such a line-item existed. Patrick vows to seek increases in funding each year of his tenure, through 2010.
"We will stay on that path of annual increases until we have delivered on the promise of universal, high-quality early education for every child in this commonwealth," Patrick said.
The state Department of Early Education and Care is requesting $54 million, a nearly eight-fold increase from this fiscal year's $7.1 million, to expand grants for pre-kindergarten providers.
Parents of preschoolers and educators say more money for pre-kindergarten is urgently needed.
Mudafer Al-Ziyadi of Quincy sends his two children - Ali, 4, and Sana, 2 - to South Shore Day Care's Quincy center. A taxi driver and part-time graduate student at Boston University, Al-Ziyadi and his wife - a full-time Quincy College student - calls the program a real service to working parents.
"You feel like someone is doing you a great favor, taking care of your kids and enhancing their mental and social skills," he said.
South Shore Day Care, which also has a program in Randolph, relies heavily on public funds, executive director Sheri Adlin said.
The center's per-child cost is $12,000, while the center collects $9,321 on average - money that comes from parents as well as the state Department of Early Education and Care, which provides funding for income-eligible families and for children at risk of abuse and neglect. The difference is made up with donations and grants, Adlin said.
Adlin lauds efforts to expand pre-K programs to all children whose parents want them.
"Decades of research show the critical years in child development is the first five years, and early childhood education makes a tremendous difference," Adlin said. "The benefits stay throughout their school years."
Tom Benner may be reached at tbenner@ledger.com.
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