State of Preschool 2012

Posted by on May 13, 2013

Pre-K annus horribilis

A new analysis of the state of early-childhood education in this country by the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) finds 2011-2012 to have been the worst year in a decade in terms of improving access to high-quality pre-K for America’s children. State funding for pre-K decreased by over half a billion dollars in 2011-2012, adjusted for inflation the largest one-year drop ever, falling $400 per child across the states. It is the first year of stagnant enrollment, with no increase in percentage of children served. It was also a disastrous year for meeting quality benchmarks, with lax monitoring and poor technical support at the same time that local capacity to produce quality programs has been undercut by reduced financial support. The number of students whose families lack means to provide them with high-quality preschool education has increased to an all-time high. For 2012-2013, appropriations were up modestly, though how well actual expenditures track these figures remains to be seen. The most positive development is at the federal level: The president put pre-K on the national agenda in his State of the Union address, and proposed providing states with $75 billion in matching funds to increase access to high-quality pre-K over the next 10 years.

http://nieer.org/publications/state-preschool-2012