From ‘A Book, an Idea and a Goat,’ Andru Volinsky’s weekly newsletter on Substack that is primarily devoted to writing about the national movement for fair school funding and other means of effecting social change. Here’s the link: https://substack.com/@andruvolinsky?utm_source=profile-page
| By ANDRU VOLINSKY, A Book, an Idea and a Goat |
Berlin’s paper mill owners invested in their unionized work force, including by providing kindergarten for workers’ children. It was good for the workers and prudent for the mill owners who understood the need for childcare. New Hampshire was the last state in the nation to require universal public kindergarten, starting with just a half day. It did so in 2009, even though the state’s Board of Education endorsed public kindergarten as early as 1984. Oregon was the 49th state to require kindergarten, beginning in 1988.
School funding litigation in New Jersey paved the way for high-quality preschool for three- and four-year-olds accompanied by appropriate social services to remediate “generational” problems. The “evidence demonstrates that the earlier education begins, the greater the likelihood that students will develop language skills and the discipline necessary to succeed in school.” The League of Women Voters submitted a friend of the court brief in support of universal preschool in the 1998 Abbott case to underscore the importance of education to preserving our democracy and in favor of allowing all to fully participate.
The focus in New Jersey’s Abbott case was on rigorous standards-based preschool with highly qualified teachers and small classes. Governor Christie Todd Whitman early on tried to cheap out by deputizing custodial daycare providers. This approach was rejected by the courts.
The New Jersey courts ordered the establishment of appropriate half-day programs with qualified lead teachers who eventually were paid at the same level as public school early elementary teachers and had similar qualifications. During the 2019-20 school year, New Jersey’s Preschool Expansion Program provided public preschool in 118 of the state’s poorest school districts, serving nearly 52,000 three- and four-year-olds and in the 2020-21 school year, the program expanded to 156 districts. The preschools are now rigorous full day programs with wrap around social services. New Jersey data show significant annual reductions in achievement gaps, and substantial positive effects in math, language and literacy, and science achievement through the 10th grade. All these effects reduce the need for later, costlier interventions, either during a child’s school years or after a child has left public school.
According to New Futures, a not for profit advocacy group in New Hampshire, “Ample evidence demonstrates that access to pre-kindergarten, particularly for low-income families, has lasting positive impacts on children beyond the early years, including higher rates of high school graduation, fewer suspensions, and fewer experiences with juvenile incarceration.”
The importance of early childhood education to those of limited and moderate incomes is clear but the problem also extends to those with higher incomes. Daycare and early childhood education costs are a burden to every family, even the ones who can afford it. My son and his wife spent $4000/month last year for the care and preschool education of our three young grandchildren.
“Childcare is a major household expense,” according to the NH Fiscal Policy Institute. “For New Hampshire families with both an infant and a four-year-old in center-based care in 2022, the total average annual price of tuition was $28,340. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (USDHHS) considers affordable childcare to be no more than seven percent of a family’s household income” which makes the average tuition an overwhelming burden for families earning the NH median household income of $119,983.
According to the Carsey Center, median market rates for full time daycare, which is not formal, rigorous early childhood education, are $255/week for infants, $240/week for toddlers and $210/week for preschoolers.
As an aside, President Biden just authorized a pilot program to create a childcare cost circuit breaker that pays for childcare expenses in excess of seven percent of income for low and moderate income families, but the program is tiny and won’t be of much use for years.
The failure to treat the cost of early childhood education as a public good means many families miss out and communities are required to bear later costs that could have been mitigated with early intervention. As well, authors Anne Case and Angus Deaton point out in their book, Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism, that better educational outcomes lead to longer lifespans with fewer health complications.
Funding early childhood education also has an economic development impact when parents are enabled to work. The Fiscal Policy Institute estimates 16,000 parents are out of the New Hampshire work force for lack of childcare, losing between $400 million and $600 million in wages due to unavailable childcare.
So why doesn’t NH expand early childhood education?
You probably thought I was going to write, “the Pledge,” but I put it down to a lack of imagination on the part of too many leaders (although some get it right).
Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire all receive federal Head Start dollars to maintain rigorous early education programs for at risk children, but Maine and Vermont generously supplement those federal dollars with state money.
NH does very little to supplement federal monies, though a recent expansion may help. Unfortunately, half the families eligible for Early Childcare Scholarships don’t appear to know about the program, according to one Carsey Center survey.
In 2019, the federal government awarded $44.3 million for Head Start to Maine programs, and Maine state government added $3.1 million, enough to serve 5000 children with the combined state and federal funding. Vermont, a state with half of New Hampshire’s population, served almost 6000 children with state and federal funding and every school district in Vermont has public pre-kindergarten. New Hampshire served less than 2000 children through its federally funded Head Start program.
For the 2021-22 school year, according to the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers, Vermont ranked 14th in state spending per child on early childhood education and Maine was 35th. NH was unranked for lack of any formal state program.
The New Hampshire Department of Education claims on its web site to be a “a committed partner supporting statewide efforts for children and schools to promote a seamless system between PreK and K-3 education [in] the pursuit of 100% reading proficiency by the end of third grade….”
The commitment doesn’t match the rhetoric. New Hampshire is one of only six states in the nation that doesn’t fund public pre-school programs for four-year-olds with state dollars and third grade results can be abysmal in high poverty districts. There’s currently an uproar in New York City because the city is cutting back on its programs for three-year-olds.
Manchester’s Beech Street Elementary School, where Deputy Commissioner Christine Brennan was principal before joining the Department, has third grade reading, and math, proficiency scores in the single digits. Brennan leads the state’s early childhood education program under Commissioner Edelblut.
Expanding pre-k programming can start NH on the road to building a more competent and equitably funded state education system. Although it is clear New Hampshire has the capacity to fully and equitably fund a statewide public education system, it has not done so.
Deploying just some of the $25 million excess adequacy funds that are now kept by the state’s wealthiest communities in a scheme that Rockingham County Judge David Ruoff found violates the state Constitution would be a good way to start NH on the road to a rigorous, standards-based universal preschool program for three- and four-year-olds. Just think of the difference it could make in Manchester, Nashua, Rochester, Newport, Berlin, Claremont, and in many other locations across the state.
State Republican and Democratic politicians say they want to target aid because funding a full statewide system of adequacy is too expensive. Targeting aid to fund a state preschool program in high poverty areas of the state—outside of adequacy funding—would be a good way to prove they’re as good as their word. To this point in our state’s history, we’ve proven there is no good reason to trust leaders who would target aid. The system supported by targeted aid always falls behind the system supported by high property values in wealthy towns…by a lot.
Please share and ask your legislators why they haven’t instituted universal preschool for NH’s most precious asset, its children.
