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Dear
Supporter,
First, I want to thank you
for helping Pre-K Now kick off 2010 with an inspiring start.
Last month, I asked you to help me build momentum for
high-quality pre-k by finding 2,010 new friends for our
NoSchoolForSam.org campaign. Not only did you come through for
Sam, you more than doubled our goal. In all, we have 4,232 new
advocates to help shape President Obama's pre-k agenda. Thanks
to everyone for your help, and especially to our top recruiter,
Brenda from Pennsylvania, for adding 34 new voices to the
conversation.
President Obama has said
early education is a priority in speech after speech. We need to
make sure he follows through on his commitment this year by
funding high quality pre-k in the reauthorization of the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). Every dollar put
toward early childhood education is both an educational and
economic stimulus for American families. Over the lifetime of a
child, the annual rate of return for taxpayers is up to 16
percent. With big returns in both dollars and classroom results,
pre-k is good for the economy and the first step to education
reform.
Thanks again for all your
help spreading the word about the pre-k movement. I’ll be
in touch soon with additional ways you can get involved.
Enjoy the latest edition of
the Pre-K Post!
Sincerely,
Marci Young
Project
Director, Pre-K Now
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Pre-K Moment
of the Month
In one of his final acts as
governor, Jon Corzine created the New Jersey Council for Young
Children to promote collaboration and coordination among early
childhood programs. The 25-member council, chaired by Ellen
Wolock, director of the Department of Education’s Office
of Preschool Education, will ensure the state complies with
quality guidelines and is in the best possible position to
receive federal funds.
"The foundation of New
Jersey's future begins with early childhood education," Corzine
said. "Without question, the work of the New Jersey Council for
Young Children will help to ensure the educational needs of our
young learners are met and exceeded by making quality early
childhood programs available to all of our students."
Read
more
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New White
Paper: What Every School Administer Should Know about Title I,
Pre-K and School Reform
The second in a two-paper
series intended for superintendents and school board members,
"Tapping Title I: What Every School Administrator Should Know
about Title I, Pre-K and School Reform," provides basic
information about using Title I funding to support quality pre-k
programs. In light of the $10 billion boost to Title I funding
that occurred as a result of the economic stimulus package
(ARRA), many cash-strapped school districts are wisely tying
this federal funding stream to their pre-k expansion efforts. A
companion to the earlier Pre-K Now white paper, "New Beginnings:
Using Federal Title I Funds to Support Local Pre-K Efforts,"
"Tapping Title I" explains how this largest source of federal
funding for school districts helps fulfill the purpose of Title
I and why it’s such a smart choice for supporting early
education initiatives.
Read "Tapping
Title I" (PDF)
Read "New
Beginnings" (PDF)
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Pew Brief:
Cutting Early Childhood Programs Worsens Fiscal
Problems
A new brief from the
Partnership for America's Economic Success aimed at educating
policy makers, "The Costs of Disinvestment: Why States
Can’t Afford to Cut Smart Early Childhood Programs," shows
how states can save money and stimulate their economies by
protecting investments in high-quality pre-k and home visiting
programs. Highlighting both societal and economic benefits, the
brief makes the case that investments in these early education
programs are essential to achieving a globally competitive
workforce and fiscal sustainability across the
country.
Program director and senior
officer at the Pew Center on the States, Sara Watson,
elaborates: "The fiscally wise choice is to maintain quality
home visiting and pre-k investments. These policies are steps
toward short-term savings for states and produce high rates of
return on each public dollar by stimulating consumer and
business spending."
Don’t forget to share
this helpful handout with the media and policy makers as the
legislative session heats up!
Read the
brief (PDF)
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Pre-K and the
State of Your State
Forced to tighten their
fiscal belts even further due to the tough economy, state
leaders across the country are seeking policy solutions that
generate both immediate and long-term economic returns. As a
result, high-quality pre-k programs, widely touted for improving
school and social outcomes for children and states, are
receiving lots of attention from governors in their State of the
State addresses. A proven education reform strategy and a
high-yielding economic development policy, pre-k continues to
garner bipartisan support as a smart investment for states to
make.
Check to see
if pre-k made your governor's State of the State address
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Early
Childhood Innovator Dr. Ramona Paul Named "Oklahoman of the
Year" 
The Pre-K Now team
congratulates Dr. Ramona Paul, Oklahoma assistant state
superintendent of education, on being named "Oklahoman of the
Year" by Oklahoma Today magazine. Dr. Paul, who is largely
responsible for her state's 73 percent pre-k enrollment rate
among four year olds, created Oklahoma's public early education
system from scratch 30 years ago.
The first educator to be
recognized, Dr. Paul joins past honorees Carrie Underwood, Garth
Brooks and NBA owner Clay Bennett.
On behalf of children,
families and pre-k advocates everywhere, thank you, Dr. Paul,
for your service!
Read more
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On the Inside
Pre-K Blog
The Lifeboat
Problem
By John Holland
Imagine a lifeboat and 20
kids in the water. You are the teacher in the lifeboat trying to
save the kids in the water. You know that six of the kids can
swim and eight can't. You jump in the water and start pulling
kids into the lifeboat. Which kids do you save first? That is
the choice kindergarten teachers in high-poverty schools
face.
Continue
reading this blog entry
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Yesterday in
Pre-K
Here are some of the most
notable pre-k stories since our last Pre-K Post issue. For more
news and commentary, stop by the Today in Pre-K
section of our homepage.
Iowa Governor
commits to protecting pre-k
Iowa Governor Chet
Culver plans to protect pre-kindergarten in his budget proposal
for the next fiscal year. In an interview
with The Quad City Times, administration spokesman Erin Seidler
said the governor's plan will uphold spending priorities in
education, early childhood education and health care for
children – all without raising taxes. The governor's
promise should sound familiar to Iowa pre-k advocates; Culver
was even more explicit about his education priorities in his
State of the State speech
on January 12:
"To date, we have helped more than 12,000
kids in 175 school districts get a quality preschool education,"
Culver told the state legislator. "So, my budget request will
include the last installment of our four-year, 60 million dollar
commitment to preschool."
Last year, the state
legislature made Iowa one of 29 states that protected its pre-k
investments.
Harlem Children's
Zone founder widens his net
A decade after
founding the Harlem’s Children’s Zone, Geoffrey
Canada is promoting his comprehensive pre-birth through college
system of education and social services as a model to break the
cycle of poverty in other cities. Civic leaders interested in
implementing similar programs include Kansas
City, Milwaukee
and Miami.
The Harlem Children's Zone,
a non-profit organization that has expanded its network of
educational programs, social services and community-building
programs to nearly 100 blocks of Central Harlem, targets
poverty-stricken children and their families. President Obama
has praised their work and proposed $10 million in his FY 2010
budget for similar "Promise Neighborhood"
initiatives.
One of the cornerstones of the HCZ is early
childhood education. The program features parenting workshops,
summer pre-k preparation sessions and Harlem Gems, and an
all-day prekindergarten program.
'Raising a
Community Series' focuses on kindergarten readiness in
Oregon
The Statesman Journal, the
largest newspaper in Salem, OR, recently launched a series of
articles to raise awareness about the issue of kindergarten
readiness in the state. Titled "The Gap of Good Intentions in
School Readiness," the stories are part of the paper's
award-winning "Raising a Community" series. The articles have
covered a variety of topics within the early childhood education
arena including the critical role of play in academic success,
the effective measurement of student progress and the challenges
of moving beyond a pre-k pilot to wide-scale program
implementation. "Once children fall behind - even in
kindergarten - their challenges and frustrations grow just
trying to catch up with better-prepared students," said the
paper's editorial staff. "Research shows that getting children
ready for educational success needs to start well before the
first day of school."
Read
more
Report: Kentucky
pre-k yields strong returns
Investing one dollar to
expand quality pre-k for Kentucky's children results in benefits
of more than $5 to the state, according to a new report by the
University of Kentucky Center for Business and Economic
Research. The findings were released during a recent meeting of
the Business Leadership Council for Pre-K, a group of business
and civic leaders. "We recognize that the state's fiscal crisis
means that new investments might not be possible in the
immediate future," said Kevin Hable, the council chair. "But we
think it is important that our elected officials and policy
leaders have information about the strong return on investment
that pre-k delivers to make sure those programs aren't cut." The
report comes at a crucial time for pre-k in Kentucky. Even as
pre-k advocates trumpet the research, the state's Department of
Education is considering cuts to pre-k programs among others in
an effort to reduce their current budget by $20
million."
Read
more
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