Despite Investment, Connecticut Misses High Marks For Preschool Programs
By Sara Hatch
Washington, March 23-While Connecticut ranked fourth nationwide in spending per child for preschool programs in the 2004-2005 school year, it was not in the top ten for access to preschool programs for either 3-year-olds or 4-year-olds, according to a report released Thursday.
The study, done by the National Institute for Early Education Research, rated Connecticut 5 out of a possible 10 in a quality standards checklist, which includes such areas as teacher training, class size, teacher-student ratio and site monitoring. The institute is a non-partisan research organization based at Rutgers University in New Jersey.
The study found that while more children are being served in preschool programs nationwide less money is being spent for each individual child, after inflation is taken into account. While state spending per child in Connecticut was at its highest in 2001-2002 it has been on the rise since 2003, with the state spending $6,663 on each child in 2004-2005.
Joyce Staples, the Connecticut school readiness program manager, said in an interview Thursday that the state is putting more money for preschool education in the budget this year, with an ultimate goal of having universal preschool for 3- and 4-year-olds in Connecticut.
In 2005, $48 million was budgeted for state-financed school readiness programs; spending is slated to increase to just over $50 million in 2006. Staples said that Gov. Jodi Rell also has inserted $3.5 million in extra preschool funds for the neediest communities.
Currently, only 28 percent of communities have state-financed programs, according to the report, but Staples said that 12 of the 19 priority school districts-those with the highest needs-have preschool programs in the public school system. In New London, which is a priority school district, Staples said that there are community preschool programs as opposed to ones based out of the public schools.
“We like the programs to be distributed throughout the community,” Staples said.
Staples said that although Connecticut is one of the states that does not have a requirement that all preschool teachers have a bachelor’s degree, 75 to 80 percent have either a bachelor’s or an associate’s degree and the state is moving toward having all preschool teachers have a bachelor’s degree by 2015.
Susan Urahn, of the Pew Charitable Trusts, which supports the institute financially, said at a press conference to release the report that “Pre-K should be a critical part of K-12 education.”
She said that nationwide only 17 percent of 4-year-olds and 3 percent of 3-year-olds currently attend state-financed preschool programs.
Steve Barnett, the director of the institute, said that state-financed programs should work in tandem with federally financed Head Start, which he said had never had enough money to help all eligible children.
In Connecticut, Staples said that some Head Start programs actually receive grants through the state’s school readiness program. She said that in all of Connecticut’s school readiness grants go directly to the community and are based on plans that must be signed off on by the mayor and the school superintendent.
Gov. Rell also has been active in bringing more widespread preschool education to Connecticut. The Early Childhood Cabinet, which Gov. Rell requested and the legislature created, is working to create a plan for to prepare children better for kindergarten.
Janice Gruendel, Gov. Rell’s senior adviser on early childcare and the co-chairwoman of the Early Childhood Cabinet, said in an interview Thursday that the plan is to have all children born this year fully prepared for kindergarten when they enter in 2011. The plan they are drawing up is targeted to be ready in June, and then delivered to the Early Childhood Research and Policy Council, which the governor established last month, to cost it out.
Gruendel said that the report produced by the Institute for Early Education Research does not take into account the children who are in private preschool programs and that when the state has surveyed parents, 75 percent have said their children had formal preschool training before kindergarten.
Gruendel also said that the governor and the Early Childhood Cabinet are not just committed to preschool programs but also want to make sure kids are healthy and ready for kindergarten.
She said that Gov. Rell has “had three priorities, and this is one of them.”
New London, Gruendel said, is grouped with similar communities with the greatest need so that when spending is being considered more effort and more resources can be directed to those communities. The other towns in the group with New London are Bridgeport, Hartford, New Britain, New Haven, Waterbury and Windham.
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