State investment in Pre-K

With many states continuing to increase spending for early-childhood education services—even in the face of tight budgets, it’s important for reporters to understand the research base surrounding preschool programs.
Pre-K was a dominant topic at this year’s EWA annual meeting in Chicago, and in one session, participants heard from Arthur Reynolds, a child development professor at the University of Minnesota and the researcher on an ongoing study that reporters covering preschool have undoubtedly heard about—the Chicago Child Parent Center study.
The study, which has found lasting benefits for those who attended over 20 years ago, is used to argue that high-quality pre-K programs produce a big economic payoff down the road.
But Reynolds said reporters make a mistake if they focus too much on any one study. By itself, any study will have certain limitations. Instead, it’s the body of research that continues to build about pre-K, particularly for disadvantaged children, that is more significant.

He also addressed the comment that some have made about most of the future savings to society coming from a reduction in crime—not in educational attainment. While that is true, he noted that every study that has shown lower crime rates over time has also shown higher achievement gains when the children were in school.
“There had to have been a literacy effect or there wouldn’t be a long-term, social-emotional effect,” he said. “If you promote well-being in school, there will be education, health, and criminal justice benefits.”

It’s research like Reynolds’—and the way policymakers have embraced the cost-benefit argument—that inspired University of California, Berkeley professor David Kirp to write his popular book, “The Sandbox Investment.”

Kirp says that while there are plenty of high-quality model preschool programs, the challenge is bringing these efforts to scale when “politicians have the attention span of fruit flies.”

“Being committed to it and getting it done are two different things,” he said, adding that because politicians also like to claim credit for programs, it’s “easier to do the cheap and big than to start small.”
Of course, with the current budget reality in many states, it might be hard for lawmakers to deliver everything they’ve been promising.

Robert Ward, a state budget expert with the Rockefeller Institute of Government in Albany, NY, said that even though state revenues are weak, and inflation is rising, the economy would continue to grow over time.

He added that during the last recession in 2001, states didn’t immediately cut spending. And when they did, education was largely left untouched.
He also noted that policymakers are giving more scrutiny to programs that “have no bang for the buck.”
“Governors and legislators,” he said, “ are paying a little more attention to research than they used to.”

-- Linda Jacobson

Other coverage of EWA conference

Kent Fischer, EWA vice president and Dallas Morning News reporter, has offered his own views on our conference. For instance, he examined whether there are any lessons for the Dallas Independent School District from Michelle Rhee's presentation. And he looked at the session on Two Million Minutes, a documentary that compares a couple of typical students from Carmel, Indiana, China and India.

And our own Alexander Russo, who contributed to this blog, also blogged about what he presented at the conference, gossip, besides his cross-posted last words on the conference.

Edited to add:
Scott Elliott writes on the debate over single sex education on his Get on the Bus blog.
And Michael Brindley of the Nashua Telegraph and his blog, Learning Curve, offers a summary of the highlights of the conference.