Image courtesy of Dave Parker (CC-BY-2.0)
The Obama administration recently released its blueprint for the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (formerly known as the “No Child Left Behind Act”). The proposal extends financial support for pre-K programs in public schools that are considered low-income, and adds professional development for teachers as well as student assessment programs for the early childhood years. This renewed attention to early childhood education comes at a critical time for Texas — recently ranked 34th in the nation for child well-being — and where in large districts with high proportions of poor students, dropout rates are 50 percent or more.
Given the drop-out rate plaguing Texas and Houston – where HISD has more than 80 percent of students qualifying for free or reduced lunch – it’s clear that intervening early is critical. Children arrive in kindergarten with wildly varying degrees of readiness which are closely linked with family income, and the latest research makes it clear that age 5 is too late to make substantial gains in readiness gaps. Voluntary Pre-K (VPK), like the new system in Florida that starts at age 4, is one way to address readiness gaps earlier. That crucial pre-K year can then be a time of shoring up children’s knowledge and skills, so they enter kindergarten on a more even playing field with their peers.
Florida’s VPK program, which provides a free, public education to any 4-year-old child, has operated for only a few years and already 64 percent of Florida’s 4-year-olds participate. Pre-K is an essential education issue — but it’s also a workforce issue. The working parents of Florida four-year-olds now have an income boost, as they are freed from the roughly $6,000 per year on average it used to cost to send their 4-year-old child to preschool or daycare, and their children benefit from the state-guided curriculum and kindergarten-readiness standards which assure quality.
HISD has a good pre-K program already, but demand outstrips supply, with long waiting lists at many schools. Pre-K at some HISD schools is tuition-based, but it is free for children who meet low-income or other eligibility requirements. Some schools might like to add an additional pre-K classroom, but lack the classroom space. Florida has solved this problem by partnering with accredited private preschools and daycares to offer state-sponsored slots for four-year-olds. This also affords parents the element of school choice, with the assurance of state guidelines and school accountability.
Implementing a larger, voluntary pre-K program in Texas would not be cheap. But economists agree that the return on investment — in terms of costs saved on remediation programs, criminal justice programs and the increased productivity of a better-educated population — is at least 3-to-1, and even higher for poor children.
The political will to support such a program — even in Texas — is there. In the 2009 session of the Texas Legislature, more than two-thirds of the House and Senate supported HB 130, which would have strengthened Texas’ Pre-K programs — but Governor Perry vetoed the bill, citing scarce resources and the need to direct funds to the poorest districts. Assuredly, the poorest districts need the most help. But what would it mean for our dropout and college-readiness rates if 100 percent of our children were ready for kindergarten? It’s difficult to predict, but with a 3-to-1 return on investment, and with bipartisan support — Texas ought to find out.
Rachel Tolbert Kimbro is an assistant professor of sociology at Rice University and a Rice scholar at the Baker Institute.