LAST WEEK, U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hasert, R-Ill., proposed further slashing of funding for Head Start, the early education initiative widely proclaimed to be one of the federal government's most successful programs. According to saveheadstart.org, the $82 million of lost funding in Hastert's proposal will result in 35,432 fewer classroom spots nationwide for pre-schoolers next fall. The cutbacks are merely continuing the recent trend of slashing federal funding for the program, which has experienced substantial budget cuts since 2002.
With the governor's race only days away, Virginians have a decision to make. If elected, Democrat gubernatorial candidate Tim Kaine has proposed to substantially change the nature of early education in Virginia by promising, through his initiative "Start Strong," to make pre-kindergarten available to all Virginia four-year-olds. According to a report released by the National Head Start Association, in Virginia, Head Start stands to lose well over 500 children from its current enrollment of 13,000, in addition to the projected layoffs of current Head Start employees. Despite numerous long-term studies indicating the importance of early childhood education, little is being done on the federal level to promote such programs.
In the wake of federal cutbacks and with substantial evidence suggesting that the economic, educational and long-term social benefits of early childhood education are well worth the cost, more should be done on the state level to facilitate the enrollment of pre-schoolers in such programs. According to Kaine's Web site, "Start Strong" will be a voluntary program available to all Virginia's four-year-olds. Locally run advisory councils made up of educators, parents, school superintendents and community leaders will be in charge of proposing the best allocation of resources for the community, with the goal of making pre-K accessible to all four-year-olds. A state-wide council will review the local proposals and approve grants.
In contrast, Republican candidate Jerry Kilgore's Web site does not mention early childhood education in any capacity. Under the "Compare the Candidates" section, education is not even one of the issues on which he attacks Kaine in an effort to distinguish himself from his opponent.
Free and readily available early childhood education to all Virginia four-year-olds may sound like quite a task, but several states have already undertaken similar projects with overwhelmingly successful outcomes. Georgia is the national leader in providing universal pre-kindergarten since its state-wide program was first implemented in 1992. According to the Cincinnati Post, over 70 percent of Georgia parents take advantage of the state-funded program. In recent years, Oklahoma, New York, Florida, Kentucky and New Jersey have joined Georgia by widely increasing the accessibility of early education. With overwhelming research implicating that early education has significant and lasting benefits, the programs are rapidly gaining national momentum.
Studies have been touting the substantial benefits of early childhood education for years. According to the Illinois state Web site, the 2001 Chicago Longitudinal Study on Early Childhood Education, which evaluated the success of Illinois's pre-K programs, found that children from low-income families who attended pre-K were 29 percent more likely to graduate from high school, 41 percent less likely to be placed in special education and 42 percent less likely to be arrested as a juvenile than children who did not attend a pre-school program.
But the benefits of early childhood education go far beyond the child and his or her family. According to a report released in 2004 by the Economic Policy Institute, the economic benefits of providing the programs are substantial. The report concludes that early childhood development programs "ultimately provide many financial benefits to local governments and taxpayers as well as to society in the form of higher earnings and reduced crime." The study highlighted three areas where taxpayers stand to benefit: lowered crime rates, reduced high school failure and drop-out rates and lower rates of welfare usage among students who have participated in the programs.
The logic is simple: Prepare kids for kindergarten by fostering the skills needed to tackle school before children actually arrive in the classroom. However, the benefits of early childhood education go far beyond four-year-olds and their families. By implementing "Start Change" under Gov. Kaine, and subsequently arming all children, regardless of socioeconomic background, with the tools necessary to succeed in kindergarten and beyond, Virginia would make substantial progress towards future economic prosperity and crime reduction.
Sophia Brumby's column appears Thursdays in The Cavalier Daily. She can be reached at sbrumby@cavalierdaily.com.
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