Dive Brief:
- Cities and school districts are getting creative about funding and expanding pre-K education; the National Conference of State Legislatures reports 450 bills with some tie to early childhood are now pending in 46 states.
- Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney, for example, has suggested a 3 cents-per-ounce sugary drink tax to generate $400 million over five years.
- At the same time, a January 2016 Education Commission of the States report found state funding for preschool programs increased in 32 states and in the District of Columbia by a total of $755 million between 2015 and 2016.
Dive Insight:
It's not just states and local-level decision-makers planning how to better invest in early childhood education. In his proposed FY 2016-2017 budget, President Barack Obama suggested a $434 million increase for Head Start, whuch would bring total funding to around $9.6 million. President Obama's budget also contains small increases to U.S. Department of Education special education programs aimed at infants, toddlers and preschoolers.
The new Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) mandates that pre-existing Preschool Development Grants, which are designed to “support coordination and alignment of states’ early learning systems” and “expand access to preschool,” will become permanent by law. The law also requires states to align their academic standards with relevant early learning guidelines, and lets districts use Title I funds for low-income children in early education programs if they meet Head Start performance standards.
California has seen success, a recent American Institutes for Research study says, with a state-mandated “transitional kindergarten” (TK) program. It currently serves 83,000 students and was created by the state's Kindergarten Readiness Act of 2010, which makes all children whose fifth birthdays fall between Sept. 2 and Dec. 2 eligible for a state-funded year of pre-K education.