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Tight budget strains early childhood education
By Nick Hanson The Free Press

After six years as a Mankato Early Childhood and Family Education teacher, Deb Wynkoop can confidently say kids are like sponges. Her 4- and 5-year-old preschool students sop up information.

And when Wynkoop is done with them, she said her students are well equipped for
kindergarten. Socially, mentally and physically. In fact, it’s tough for her to imagine a kid not receiving some type of formal early childhood education.

“The child would struggle more in school and just with the social rules,” she said. “Bridging that gap with reading and literacy and developing that body — it’s so important to start young with kids.”

Funding has shrunk
There’s definitely some merit to what Wynkoop believes.

The human brain develops more rapidly between birth and age 5 than during any other period in human life. And research, such as the Abecedarian Project and the Chicago Child-Parent Center Longitudinal Study, show that children who are exposed to nurturing and stimulating environments early will perform better in elementary and secondary schools.

Problem is, not all children are receiving that support and education. A recent study by the Department of Education indicates less than half of Minnesota children are fully prepared for kindergarten. And as it becomes increasingly clear early childhood education is important, state funding for its programs has been lacking.

Out of a $30 billion budget, in 2006-07 the state is allocating $179.9 million to various pieces of early childhood education (less than 1 percent). In 2000-01 the state was giving $245.5 million to early childhood education, about 36 percent more than now.The big hit came in 2004-05 when funding dropped to $174.8 million, even lower than funding in the late ’90s. Funding was restored a little this year but doesn’t come close to bridging the gap back to where it used to be.

To put it simply: Demand for early childhood programming is growing and public educators aren’t able to meet it because of a tight budget. Put that on top of inflation, and public early childhood education programs are in a tough spot, said Corrine Wesely, Early Childhood and Family Education director for Mankato Area Public Schools.

Mankato ECFE serves about 800 area families with children from infants to age 5 at the Lincoln Community Center. Since 2003, Wesely has had to cut prep time and staff, some programs, scholarships for needy families and has raised class fees. Preschool cost alone
has gone up more than 25 percent.

“The demand for the classes is there, but we haven’t been able to respond or expand,” she said.There’s a limit to how many grants she can apply for and how high she can raise fees and continue to attract students, Wesely said.

While it’s a not a complete doom-and-gloom picture, things could certainly be better, she said. “We’re a vibrant, large program. We’re not dying on the vine,” she said. “... (But) how can you do more with less (funding)?”

Organizations such as the Minnesota Community Education Association suggest increasing School Readiness (basically early childhood education preschool funding) from $9 million to $20 million per year. While that number is large, Wesely believes it is fairly reasonable.

It’s important, she said, because School Readiness targets kids who don’t qualify for low-income programming such as Head Start but aren’t able to afford other preschool programs.

“We haven’t been able to reach those children. They’re falling through the cracks,” Wesely said. “When a family responds to a program and we (can’t help), it’s frustrating.”

Head Start hurting, too
Even Head Start is struggling, said Chris Marben, program manager for Region Nine Minnesota Valley Action Council Head Start.

Head Start caters to about 600 kids in south-central Minnesota. The program, designed for low-income families, always has a waiting list and has been forced to turn down more than 100 applicants the past few years. This year the organization had to cut six teachers and two administrative positions — all work absorbed by other employees.

Programs have taken a hit, too. A popular social day activity was reduced from 23 to 18 days a year.

“It was a tough year this year,” Marben said.

Like Wesely, Marben believes the big problem is not being able to reach low-income families that are just above the poverty line. Those families don’t qualify for Head Start and can’t afford to pay for early childhood education.

“We worry about them,” she said.

Domino effect
Early childhood education cuts have impacted child care, too, said Bob Meyer, human service director for Blue Earth County.

The county isn’t able to provide child-care assistance to low-income families at the level it did a few years ago, Meyer said. As a result, families who used to be eligible for some assistance no longer are.

“(Those families) end up making choices about where their income is going to go,” Meyer said. “They may end up with less reliable transportation. They may have (to leave their) children home alone more. They are having to make hard choices about what they do because their income cannot support their needs.”

Blue Earth County also had to make cuts to Children’s Project, a family service and children’s mental health program for at-risk kids and parents. Since 2003, the program has three fewer mental health case managers and three fewer social workers.

Todd Otis, president of Ready 4 K, a statewide nonprofit early childhood education advocacy group, believes money isn’t the only tactic that will improve early childhood education.

“The solution is more money, but also money spent on making sure we get good outcomes,” he said. “(We need to) make sure the programs we are funding actually have the result we want to have.”

To do that Ready 4 K would like to see more assessments such as the Department of Education’s recently developed test for students entering kindergarten. “For the most part people run good programs, but we need more accountability for results,” Otis said. “We should be measuring how effective they are.”