Pre-K Goes to Washington

President Obama launched early childhood education into the national spotlight in February when in his State of the Union address he proposed “working with states to make high-quality preschool available to every child in America.” Since then, the early education field has been debating best practices, funding models, and making sure the mainstream media accurately presents the compelling research case for pre-K. The White House has been largely mum on plan details, though its fact sheet, the President’s education speech in Georgia, and recent remarks from White House advisor Roberto Rodriguez have offered some clues. While the President’s plan is more of an outline than a detailed proposal, it does focus on a few key components:

• A plan to implement comprehensive data and assessment systems,
• Small class sizes and low staff to child ratios,
• Qualified teachers for all preschool classrooms, and
• Well-trained teachers who are paid comparably to K-12 staff.

The proposal has not gone unnoticed on Capitol Hill, where several early learning bills have been introduced in both the Senate and the House of Representatives to improve the quality of and access to early childhood education for 4-year-olds. Funds would be channeled through state-designated agencies to subgrantees who would provide the actual services.

Three recently introduced bills call for a closer reading:

• The Prepare All Kids Act (S. 502) introduced by Senator Bob Casey (D-PA);
• The Ready to Learn Act (S.322) introduced by Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) and co-sponsored by Al Franken (D-MN), Mark Begich (D-AK), Mazie Hirono (D-HI); and
• The Providing Resources Early for Kids Act of 2013, or PRE-K Act, introduced by Senator Mazie Hirono (D-HI) (S.519) cosponsored by Mark Begich (D-AK), Benjamin Cardin (D-MD), Richard Durbin (D-IL), Al Franken (D-MN), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Tim Johnson (D-SD), Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), Patty Murray (D-WA), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Charles Schumer (D-NY), and Ron Wyden (D-OR). Companion legislation was introduced in the House (H.R. 1041) by Representative Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY) and cosponsored by Representative Allyson Schwartz (D-PA).

The plans agree on several points, such as requiring comprehensive early learning standards (defined by the National Education Goals Panel as physical well-being/motor development, social/emotional development, approaches toward learning, language development, and cognition/general knowledge) as well as requiring states to use these federal funds to “supplement, not supplant” existing state funds for early learning. Each plan also addresses those key aspects of the White House proposal in slightly different ways:

The Prepare All Kids Act also calls for a 15 percent set aside of funding for programs for children ages 0 to 3, while the PRE-K Act calls for 10 percent set aside for quality improvement in programs for children these ages. While media attention of President Obama’s early childhood plan has largely centered on the components offering preschool to 4-year-olds, children ages 0 to 3 were addressed through Early Head Start-Child Care Partnership programs.

These requirements seem like good news for most programs with state-funded pre-K programs. As indicated in NIEER’s annual State Preschool Yearbook, from the 2001-2002 to 2010-2011 school year, state-funded pre-K programs made particular progress in meeting the NIEER quality standards in the areas of class size and ratio, lead teacher requirements, and early learning standards.

Clearly, the percent of programs requiring teachers to have a bachelor’s degree has lagged considerably with only 57 percent of programs meeting this standard. However, provisions in each of the three congressional bills give programs some time to raise teacher credentialing to this level. Twenty-four programs already meet all of the requirements of these proposals regarding program standards as indicated in NIEER’s latest State Preschool Yearbook. Though these would not be the sole qualifying factors for receiving federal funds, it appears that almost 50 percent of pre-K programs are already on the right track from Congress’ point of view.

Pre-K has also found itself a more modest place in the Continuum of Learning Act of 2013 (H.R.791) as introduced by Representative Jared Polis (D-CO) and Don Young (R-AK), with Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), Jim McDermott (D-WA), and Allyson Schwartz (D-PA) joining as co-sponsors after the bill was introduced. While the bill was introduced shortly after the President’s State of the Union pre-K proposal, it does not outline a new pre-K program but rather builds early learning more explicitly into the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The Continuum of Learning Act focuses primarily on improving early learning guidelines; encouraging local education agencies (LEAs) to utilize school improvement funds to provide early education programs; and promote professional development, especially through providing joint training between early education and elementary teachers.

Introducing bills in committee still leaves early learning far from the President’s desk, but the number of plans focusing on high-quality early childhood education at the federal level represents a heartening commitment to the future of kids.

– Megan Carolan, Policy Research Coordinator, NIEER