Nearly Four Years After Law, Early Education For All Still Far Off
State House News Service, January 8, 2008

STATE HOUSE, BOSTON, JAN. 8, 2007…..Advocates for universal pre-kindergarten, asking for $54 million in the next state budget cycle, today hailed Gov. Deval Patrick's promise of a funding increase, although actual amounts may fall well short of their demands and the needs of the state's youngest learners.

The governor, a supporter of access to pre-school for the 240,000 three-, four- and five-year-olds in Massachusetts, said tight fiscal times make increased budget requests a "challenge" and declined to commit to a specific increase. Patrick's budget request is due Jan. 23.

"I'm going to let the budget speak for itself," Patrick told reporters today. "I do intend to increase the funding, and that's an enormous challenge in any time, but particularly in these fiscal times. But I think it's that important."

According to Early Education for All, about 70 percent, or 168,000 of the commonwealth three-, four- and five-year-olds, attend a formal early education program. Of those, more than half attend center-based programs. The rest are taught in public pre-schools, family child-care homes, the homes of friends or relatives or in Head Start programs. In addition, about a third of all pre-kindergarten educators in Massachusetts have a bachelor's degree, compared to 50 percent nationally, according to EEA.

Following the passage of a 2004 law locking the state into a policy "to assure every child a fair and full opportunity to reach his full potential by providing and encouraging" early education, Early Education for All officials indicated $600 million, phased in over five years on top of existing public and private funds for early education, would be necessary to fully fund universal pre-kindergarten.

New funding has trickled in since passage the 2004 law. In fiscal 2007, the Legislature appropriated $7.1 million, up from $4.6 million in fiscal 2006, the first year such a line-item existed. With a limited capacity for new spending and other costly initiatives on tap, even optimistic supporters say universal pre-k is still years away.

Patrick vowed to seek increases in funding each year of his tenure, which runs through 2010. "And we will stay on that path of annual increases until we have delivered on the promise of universal, high-quality early education for every child in this Commonwealth," he said.

Early education is one of the many topics being examined under the Readiness Project, a group of individuals selected by Patrick to help him formulate a long-term education strategy. A project report is expected in the spring.

The state Department of Early Education and Care has requested $25 million for universal pre-K, more than three times last year's level, but less than half of what Early Education for All has requested. EEC Commissioner Ann Reale said the request was realistic based on the high demand for dollars during a belt-tightening budget cycle.

Early Education for All's $54 million request, a nearly eight-fold increase from this fiscal year's $7.1 million, would create and expand grants for pre-kindergarten providers, who currently teach 3,002 children in 67 cities and towns under the grant program.

Patrick made his promise at a morning rally of early education supporters. As he made his way to the podium, about a dozen pre-schoolers serenaded him with a rap rendition of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star," while doe-eyed onlookers ooh-ed and ahh-ed. The children were participants in "Rising Stars," an art project to highlight the value of universal pre-kindergarten.

At the rally, advocates joined early education providers, state officials and legislators in support of their cause.

Education Committee Co-chair Rep. Patricia Haddad (D-Somerset) told the audience that investment in early education would save millions of dollars in the long run by equipping young children with the foundation they need to get good jobs and stay healthy when they're older.

"What we do here in early education can offset so many economic issues," she said. Supporters have argued that every dollar spent on early education yields $1.16.

Haddad, along with 85 co-signers, is sponsoring a bill to establish a framework for providing universal pre-kindergarten. The bill passed the Legislature unanimously in 2006 but failed after then-Gov. Mitt Romney vetoed it. Romney argued that the bill would cost taxpayers as much as $1 billion per year. His veto came in August, after the Legislature had recessed for the year. Lawmakers would have had to convene a special session to override the veto, which they opted against. This session, the bill, which was heard in April, remains in committee.

At the rally, one provider, Susan Ferraro, who helps run the Little Sprouts early childhood education program, summed up her supporters' funding demands.

"More is better," she said. "But way more is way better."