Much of this work is focused on today’s classrooms and, accustomed as everyone is to instant gratification, results are expected NOW. A much longer view is required if children are to achieve and sustain real gains.
That’s why it’s critical Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s New NY Education Reform Commission recommend expanding, strengthening and, most importantly, funding early childhood education, including reliable day care.
Study after study has shown that dollar for dollar, investment in early childhood education has the greatest impact on outcomes for kids. Pre-kindergarten increases readiness for kindergarten by 80 percent, increases graduation rates by 45 to 65 percent, increases basic achievement at age 14 by 300 percent, increases earnings over a child’s lifetime and reduces frequency of arrests by one-third, according to statistics cited by the Alliance for Quality Education.
In purely financial terms, the return on investment is as high as 10 to 1. That should impress Richard Parsons, the retired chairman of Citigroup who heads Cuomo’s commission.
Yet state funding for Pre-k has not increased in four years. It’s actually declined 15 percent, according to AQE’s calculations, because state money distributed to school districts that have dropped Pre-k due to budget cuts goes back to the general fund. Due to the state funding cap, Pre-k is destined to remain underfunded.
Only 41 percent of New York 4-year-olds attend pre-kindergarten. Of more than 700 school districts in the state, 441 (including Syracuse) provide Pre-k; 143 districts offer half-day Pre-k to every child, AQE reports. Funding Pre-k sounds like a no-brainer. But tiny voices in Albany are easily drowned out by shouts for funding from louder constituencies.
Cuomo’s commission is charged with looking at seven broad areas of education: improving teacher recruitment and performance, raising student achievement (including through early learning), assessing how school districts spend their money, increasing parent engagement, addressing the problems of high-need and low-wealth districts, the best use of technology in the classroom, and meeting student needs while respecting the taxpayer. Early childhood education cuts across many of these areas.
The commission could make a bold statement — and set New York on a trajectory to educational greatness in the 21st century — by promoting Pre-k for every child, and committing to fund it. The investment will be huge. So will the payoff.
School readiness training really begins at birth. A targeted investment in a fledgling rating system for day care providers, QualityStarsNY, would lay the foundation for success in preschool and beyond. New Jersey did this and saw the number of “good” or “excellent” early childhood programs go from 14 percent to 63 percent. Children made gains in language, literacy, math and kindergarten readiness. The number of second-graders who had to repeat the grade was cut in half.
In his State of the State address in January, Cuomo bemoaned the fact that New York spends more money per student on education than any other state, yet is ranked 38th in high school graduation rates. The governor who stands on that dais in 2050 could be telling a different story, if Cuomo starts to write it now.