Research paper: state-funded preschool
Executive Summary
An expansion of Virginia’s state-funded preschool program, the Virginia Preschool Initiative (VPI), is necessary to ensure that the maximum number of at-risk four-year-olds receive a high-quality preschool education. Expanding VPI by using both public and private preschool centers will incur costs to the state and individual localities up front. However, Virginia will reap large long-term benefits through this investment in early childhood education.
Access to Preschool in Virginia
Too many of Virginia’s four-year-olds do not have access to a high-quality early education program. This is especially true for students whose families’ incomes do not qualify them to attend a federally funded Head Start program, but still do not have the means to pay for private programs. In such cases, Virginia’s state-funded preschool program, the Virginia Preschool Initiative (VPI), may be the only option available to provide students with the early childhood education they need. Currently, many localities do not serve the maximum number of preschool students due to resource constraints. Constraints include classroom space, teacher availability, and limited local funding. VPI provides preschool at no cost to many deserving students but needs to expand to cover more at-risk four-year-olds.
Expanding the Virginia Preschool Initiative
To ensure that all at-risk four-year-olds have access to a high-quality early education program, Virginia should expand its state-funded VPI program. The state should encourage localities facing resource constraints to contract out to high-quality private preschool programs. This would entail sending students who qualify for VPI to private preschools when public classrooms reach capacity or when there are not a sufficient number of teachers. The private preschools would receive state funding for each VPI-qualifying student it serves, making it a no-cost option for these students.
Contracting out to private preschools would help mitigate resource constraints that prevent localities from serving the maximum number of VPI-qualifying students, but it would also create concerns about program quality. Localities would need to approve private preschool programs to ensure they would be equal in quality to traditional VPI programs. General measures for preschool quality include teacher-to-student ratio, overall class size, teacher education level, and full-day rather than half-day instruction.
This policy recommendation would enable more four-year-olds to attend preschool at no cost and is a step towards providing universal preschool to all children in Virginia. Superintendents should spend the summer of 2016 searching for private preschool providers that meet quality standards and begin sending VPI-qualifying students to these sites in the fall of 2016. Following this upcoming school year, Virginia legislators can reassess VPI’s success and consider expanding eligibility to students whose families are in higher income brackets. By using both public and private providers, Virginia can move towards a system of free universal preschool.
Early Childhood Education: Virginia’s Best Dollar Spent
The benefits of early childhood education are not under dispute; researchers and education experts largely agree that attending a high-quality preschool will strengthen a student’s academic achievement throughout their lives. Students reap the greatest benefits from more intensive preschool programs, like the well-known Perry Preschool and Abecedarian Project. While such rigorous programs might not be realistic on a broad scale, they point to the importance of investing in early childhood education. Long-term benefits of attending preschool include higher achievement test scores, lower rates of grade repetition and special education, and even lower rates of crime and poverty in adulthood. The benefits of preschool are especially strong for students from minority and low-income families, but students from all backgrounds experience academic gains.
Political and Budgetary Considerations
Universal preschool can be a politically divisive issue. However, the benefits children receive from attending preschool are clear and can be used to garner support for the expansion of VPI. Georgia and Oklahoma have enacted universal preschool programs throughout their states while facing a similar political atmosphere to Virginia. Expanding VPI by using both public and private preschool centers will allow more students to attend but will not make the program universal. This gradual expansion of preschool access should not be politically unfavorable.
Much of the financial burden of expanding VPI will fall on individual localities. Localities that had not previously served the maximum number of VPI students will be able to do so with the help of private preschools. Localities are also responsible for paying half of the $6,000 per pupil cost of attending a VPI program, with the state funding the remaining half. As such, localities that begin sending more students to a VPI program will need to pay the per-pupil cost to do so. Allowing students from higher income brackets to attend VPI preschools in future years will continue to raise these costs. While the costs of expanding VPI may seem high up front, localities and Virginia as a whole will reap enormous benefits as these students mature and succeed in their academic and professional lives.
