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Elected
on a promise of universal government preschool for
all, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine has all but abandoned
that near-term goal, if not the rhetoric, in favor
of a program aimed toward at-risk children.
The
Governor's latest
proposal concedes that costs are far higher than
he originally projected. He’s made a small
concession to the notion that private providers
need to be a part of the mix. And he’s thrown a
weak lifeline to local governments being asked to
pick up a huge share of the expense.
Unlike
ideologues of both the left and right, Kaine is willing to forgo a touchdown in order to get
his team into field goal position. But he’s
about to hit some financial limits.
The
Virginia Preschool Initiative (VPI) is currently
available only to kids who qualify for “free”
meals in schools (families of four earning $26,845
or less). Kaine would expand that to include kids
receiving “reduced” price meals. Targeting
at-risk kids makes sense: The evidence is pretty
clear that quality preschool better prepares these
youngsters for kindergarten. (There’s also some
convincing evidence of a “fadeout” effect by
4th grade, but that’s a subject for another
column on K-12 education).
VPI
budgets quality preschool at $5,700 per child –
an assumption that is far from reality – and
computes state funding through the Local Composite
Index used to fund K-12 schools. That leaves
localities largely responsible for funding up to
80 percent of the real cost, which is much higher
than the arbitrary state “assumption.”
Kaine’s proposal tries to correct both by
acknowledging the actual average state cost of $6,790
per child and guaranteeing that state will fund at
least half that amount.
Finally,
Kaine would require that localities choosing to
participate in any expansion must partner with
private providers for at least 10 percent of any
new slots created – a proposal aimed at
resolving facilities shortfalls.
Although
the Governor's plan is better than earlier
iterations, it still would impose significant new
financial burdens on local governments at a time
when many face a fiscal crunch from declining real
property values.
While
the state currently funds the current pre-school
program for nearly 18,000 children, only 70
percent of those slots are filled. The rest go
empty largely because localities are choosing to
spend local tax dollars elsewhere. More than half
of those unfilled slots are in less than 10
percent of localities. They include Loudoun, which
funded none of its 400+ slots; Prince William,
which funded 36 of its 723 slots; Fairfax County,
with nearly 1,000 seats unfunded; and Alexandria
City, with a gap of more than 500 empty seats.
The
Prince William County School Board has already
passed a motion opposing the Kaine proposal
because of its cost. Does anyone really expect
Loudoun County to start a multi-million dollar
program when the county is looking at a $250
million shortfall? Will Fairfax County create new
seats for pre-schoolers even as that school system
proposes student fees, higher class size, and
elimination of new textbooks to help bridge the
county budget gap?
In
areas like the City of Alexandria, where quality
preschool costs $9,800 per child, Gov. Kaine’s
proposal would help, but it would not change the
underlying fiscal dynamics. The changed formula
would create fewer than 70 seats.
Nor
is there a guarantee that new facilities will be
added by having local private schools
“partner” with local school systems. All too
often, schools add prohibitive regulations
designed by lawyers more interested in covering
butts than covering children. As Tracy Armentrout,
administrator for Creative Wonders Learning Center
in Stuarts Draft noted: “We don’t really need
what the government has to offer.”
There
is one sure way to build capacity, however:
Unleash the private sector instead of tying it to
bureaucratic public school systems. Create and
enforce high quality standards that ensure at-risk
children will learn and be kindergarten-ready, and
then let the private sector do the job. Avoid the
mistakes that states like Florida made in
spreading standards and money too thin.
And
then offer parents scholarships they can use for
their children at the accredited public or private
preschool of their choice. Giving poor parents the
power of the purse creates incentives for private
and public schools to invest in and create new
quality programs that will meet the needs of
at-risk children and build capacity to serve more
kids.
Of
course, public school systems – even those that
don’t or won’t step up to the plate themselves
– will oppose anything that smacks of giving
parents such choices. For them, the issue isn’t
about educating kids: It's ’s about controlling
education and the dollars that flow with it.
But
if we’re serious about the need to prepare
at-risk children for kindergarten we should focus
on the kids, not the system. And by creating
alternative pre-K scholarship programs in grossly
underserved counties and cities, we can let the
competition for excellence begin – and see which
programs would help kids the most.
--
January 14, 2008
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