TKW Consulting

Early childhood education has a good head of political steam.

Here's a stunner: Something has at least equaled, and maybe surpassed, K-12 education in Minnesotans' expectations from state government.

It's preschool.

At the Capitol, where public opinion fever lines are avidly followed, that word from a poll this week ought to attract considerable notice. The statewide poll found 71 percent of respondents saying that properly preparing every child to do his or her best in kindergarten is a top priority for the state. K-12 betterment was so ranked by 69 percent, a statistically insignificant difference.

What's more, 54 percent of those polled said they would be at least somewhat more likely to support a candidate for the Legislature or governor who advances a plan to make high-quality early ed available to all families. Only 15 percent of respondents had the contrary view.

Those findings have a respectable bipartisan pedigree. They were jointly produced by Peter Hart Research Associates, which often works for Democratic candidates, and Decision Resources Inc., a Minnesota firm headed by Bill Morris, former GOP state chairman, in a project financed by the nonpartisan national group Pre K Now. The respondents were not a band of liberals: 72 percent of those surveyed identified themselves as either moderate or conservative politically.

What was telling is that regardless of age, income, gender or location in the state, those polled were strongly in favor of a larger state role in preschool education. They were divided over whether the state's role should be to provide universal-access programs, or support means-tested assistance to low-income families.

Minnesota's answer traditionally has been "both:" the all-comers Early Childhood Family Education program and sliding-fee child care help funded by the state. But drastic cuts, particularly in the latter, have left the state's early childhood education infrastructure in depleted condition. The poll suggested that Minnesotans know as much: 63 percent said that in their judgment, half of the state's kindergartners arrive in school less than fully prepared to learn.

That matches the results of assessments conducted in 2002-04 --assessments that were unwisely eliminated by the Legislature in 2005. If the 2006 Legislature finds itself without the money to do much else about early childhood in this non-budget session, it ought to at least come up with the few hundred thousand dollars needed to resume measuring school readiness.

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