Early Childhood

Support for early childhood education efforts might be at an all-time high. But Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, early childhood expert Joan Lombardi and Rhode Island KIDS Count director Elizabeth Burke Bryant lamented to a group of education reporters that the programs still haven’t expanded fast enough.

“The good news is that the battle is over,” said Kaine, who noted that Virgina politicians who battled him over the issue a couple of years ago now tout the benefits of pre-kindergarten programs.

But the bad news for Kaine, as well as Bryant and Lombardi, is that advocates have not been able to capitalize on the new momentum as quickly as they would like-- partly because of the economic downturn.

There’s “flat funding and Head Start is only serving half of the eligible children,” said Lombardi. “Although preK is growing, there’s a significant number of children who still don’t have access.”

Since Kaine took over as governor in 2006, the state has expanded access to pre-kindergarten programs for at-risk four-year-olds, created a unified office of early childhood education, and devised a voluntary rating system for private and public pre-kindergarten programs in an effort to create a “consumer mentality” among parents.

President Barack Obama has pledged billions of dollars for early childhood efforts, so some of the funding woes will likely diminish. Yet the panelists said more strident efforts must be paid to shore up quality and stability of early childhood education programs. Specifically, they mentioned simplifying the complicated and “hobbled together” funding streams in some cities and states, and ensuring that all early childhood educators are qualified.

Bryant said hopes that someday pre-kindergarten is so much a part of the American education fabric that kindergarten teachers will automatically ask families which pre-school program their children attended.

“We are missing whole generations…of kids the longer we wait before we scale up,” she said.

-- Sarah Carr