Facing pressure to cut redundancies and scale back its budget, the General Assembly has been seeking ways to reduce funding to North Carolina’s pre-kindergarten programs. It’s unclear whether the state’s two principal pre-K programs will survive the conference committee that will iron out the state’s 2009-10 budget or if a single program will emerge.
According to the annual report from the National Institute for Early Education Research on preschool programs across the country, North Carolina spent more than $140 million on pre-K during the 2007-08 school year, or $5,061 per enrolled 4-year-old.
The fact that consolidation and cuts are on the table is unusual indeed. “In a typical year, pre-kindergarten programs are sacrosanct. This is not a typical year,” explained Terry Stoops, education policy analyst at the John Locke Foundation. And yet Provision 10.7A in the budget bill creates a task force with a goal of consolidating the state’s More at Four and Smart Start programs along with other child care subsidies into a single program by the opening of the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2010.
More at Four was introduced in 2001 by then-Gov. Mike Easley. Intended to target at-risk 4-year-olds, the program provides funding for private child-care centers, public schools, and Head Start agencies, though counties have some flexibility with how their More at Four programs are structured and funded.
Though More at Four is paid for primarily by the state lottery, some counties, including Mecklenburg, have created structures that allow blending of funds with school districts. Additionally, More at Four teachers must satisfy state credentialing requirements, including holding a bachelor’s degree.
The program has received high marks from NIEER, which provides research-based assistance to policy-makers and others in the business of early education.
On the other hand, Smart Start, which bills itself as a public-private initiative to provide early education funding throughout North Carolina, administers funds to what it calls “Local Partnerships,” or local nonprofit organizations. With about $203 million in state funding last year and offices in every county, Smart Start essentially acts as a distribution center or middle man between local child-care facilities or schools and the state.
“The fact that there is some degree of duplication in More at Four and Smart Start makes funding and governance changes politically viable,” Stoops explained. “In this way, proposed changes to North Carolina’s preschool programs cannot be classified as cuts, but efficiencies.”
Merger talk controversial
Talk of merging the programs has met resistance from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, newspaper editorials, and many preschool watchers.
Kevin Campbell, who owns and operates a day-care center in Mecklenburg County, noted that the legislature’s intent does not reflect the reality of the situation. Though Smart Start is well-funded and well-connected in Raleigh, its operating costs often significantly exceed those of More at Four, Campbell explained.
“There’s a tremendous amount of waste. The overheads in that program [Smart Start] are very high,” said Campbell, who receives both Smart Start and More at Four funds.
“They think they’re going to save some overhead, but they’re not. They’re going from a lower cost-based administration to a higher one.”
With offices in each county and the requisite administrators required to staff those offices, Smart Start must spend money on its own operation before it ever reaches the families in need. “Smart Start is a mediocre program that has friends in powerful places and impeccable (public relations),” Stoops said. “The formation of local partnerships was a reasonable idea in theory, but the partnerships evolved into a bureaucracy that is bad for everyone involved — day-care providers, parents, and children alike.”
Are the programs effective?
Much ink has been spilled about the effectiveness of pre-K education. As Stoops explained, impoverished children do seem to benefit from the early intervention of preschool programs.
“The programs are necessary, particularly for children that come from destitute or unstable homes. These children often encounter difficulties that will keep their academic and social development years behind their school peers,” Stoops said.
But often, the effectiveness of full-day preschool programs fades within a few years. One study, the federal Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, showed that by the end of the third grade, children who attended full-day preschool had no significant edge over those who had attended a half-day preschool.
“Studies of More at Four are simply inadequate and need to take a longitudinal approach,” Stoops continued.
He described a study by UNC-Chapel Hill’s Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute showing “little guarantee that these children (who attended preschool) will maintain these skills into middle and high school, where students are most susceptible to falling behind their peers academically.”
The John Locke Foundation has identified several areas that pre-K programs should address, including the realization that government-funded pre-K has limited benefits and should not be extended to all children regardless of need or income.
The Senate budget slashed funding for More at Four by as much as 25 percent and merged More at Four, Smart Start, and child-care subsidies into a single program. In contrast, the House budget reduced Smart Start funding by $5 million per year, More at Four by $10 million per year, and child-care subsidies by $12.4 million in the next fiscal year, while adding $67 million in federal funds for child-care subsidies.
The conference committee must pass the budget by June 30 and Gov. Beverly Perdue must sign it before it becomes law.
Colleen Calvani is a contributor to Carolina Journal.