While most of Montana's children are reveling in the last half of summer vacation, their teachers and education leaders are considering whether to begin school at age 3. They're feeling pressure from a national movement promoting pre-kindergarten as a cost-effective way of boosting academic and social performance in later years.
“Montana's a little behind the group when you compare us to other states' pre-kindergarten programs,” said Kelly Rosenleaf, director of Missoula Childcare Resources. “We still have high graduation rates, but increasingly we understand about early brain development. There's a lot of concern about children entering school not ready to learn.”
Pre-K caught momentum last year, when a National Governors Association task force published its recommendations for school readiness. It concluded that the first four years of life were critical for setting an educational foundation, and states have lots of potential to make changes there.
And there's a fair amount of data backing up those claims. A report by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Center cited by Montana KIDSCOUNT in 2005 noted that “every dollar invested in quality early care and education saves taxpayers up to $13 in future costs.” Nationwide, existing early childhood programs provide jobs to more than 3 million people, including 30,600 in Washington state. That's more than that state's retail apparel or hotel industries employ.
Beyond that, the Child and Family Policy Center reported that “while 85 percent of a child's brain structure is formed by age 3, less than 4 percent of public investments on education and development have occurred by that time. For every dollar society invests in the education and development of a school-aged child, society invests only 13.7 cents in that child during the earliest learning years.”
In Missoula, there are two initiatives aimed at preschoolers. One is the creation of a kind of pre-kindergarten that would offer resources and structured programs for 4- and 5-year-olds. The other is all-day kindergarten, which would throw new attention to the needs of 5-year-olds.
In July, Gov. Brian Schweitzer suggested offering all-day kindergarten to all Montanans, at a cost of about $15 million a year. The State Board of Education also created a new combined committee entitled “Kindergarten to College Workgroup” to coordinate its long-term student development efforts. But those promises and name changes still await legislation.
Given Montana's decentralized education system, there's no sure bet whether either idea will come first from the Legislature or from local school districts. For example, Great Falls has already started its own all-day kindergarten program, without waiting for state help.
But there are strong reasons for waiting for Helena to set the course. For one, pre-kindergarten children now don't count toward a school district's Average Number Belonging total, the per-pupil tally that determines state funding. Changing that would require state-level funding rules changes.
Another issue is how to accommodate the existing private childcare provider industry. Missoula alone has about 187 regulated childcare businesses, which stand to gain or lose a lot of customers depending on how a pre-kindergarten program is designed.
“Financially, it's probably going to be a burden I'm not sure right now Montana can absorb,” said Judee Delancy, co-owner of Missoula's Angel Day Care and Preschool and president of the Montana Association for the Education of Young Children. “We know if we do things right in the early years, it pays off in the long run, but we already have existing programs out there. If it (a state-directed pre-kindergarten initiative) can be incorporated into existing child care programs, then I think we can be really good partners. But I don't believe it belongs in the schools.”
Angel Day Care is accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children, a nationwide organization that guides preschool standards and policies. Delancy said its accreditation standards for operations like Angel are more strict than state regulations.
The National Association of Family Childcare Workers performs a similar function for home-based day cares and preschools. There is no national regulation or licensing of non-residential summer camps or similar children's programs that operate on a short-term basis.
“There's a world of difference between a teacher having an early childhood background and having a background in elementary education,” Delancy said. “It's totally different, and it's vital we understand that.”
About 3,000 preschoolers are in regulated or licensed programs in Missoula County, according to Rosenleaf. Missoula Childcare Resources helps about 900 children in a three-county area pay the fees for that care through state subsidies. For many of those families, Rosenleaf said, the goal is as much finding someone to watch their children during work hours as it is ensuring the children develop to the best of their abilities.
Thus the growing popularity of national pre-kindergarten initiatives. A workable solution would combine child safety and education for a huge swath of the population.
“Some kind of public-private partnership would probably work best,” said Susan Barmeyer, agency coordinator at the Healthy Start Council of the Missoula Forum for Children and Youth. Already such a partnership itself, the council includes federal programs like Head Start, private cooperatives like the Missoula Child Care Association, nonprofit groups like YMCA and about a dozen others.
Barmeyer said the council is generally dedicated to improving the lives of young children. But shortly after she started networking the various groups together in 2000, she detected a strong specific interest in preschool improvements. When one of those groups, the Parenting Place, created a Saturday morning “Taste of Preschool” program, it was soon swamped with parent interest.
“Many families had no idea how much their kids could learn in a preschool setting,” Barmeyer said. “They're not sitting at tables doing worksheets. They're doing developmentally appropriate education.”
And “they” are not just 4- and 5-year-olds. Pre-kindergarten is a family affair, according to Missoula County Public Schools special education director Candy Lubansky. The children learn their ABCs and how to work in a classroom. Meanwhile, pre-K teachers work with the parents on how to recognize when their children show signs of reading readiness, test for eyeglasses and hearing, and other childrearing tips.
That parental involvement comes with its own challenges. Some might see pre-kindergarten as an additional layer of the public education institution, which would grow from 13 years of school to 14. And then there's the question of which parents would be involved. Would pre-kindergarten be voluntary or compulsory (currently Montana begins compulsory education at age 7). Would it be all-inclusive, like Social Security, or targeted at families of children who show signs of needing extra help? The all-inclusive style would cost more but benefit more. The targeted model would ensure children who needed it would get help, but there would be constant debate over where the threshold should be.
A 2005 study by the Rand Corporation on “Early Childhood Interventions” found that the targeted approach had a better payoff. It found that serving disadvantaged families returned about $5.70 for every dollar invested, while programs for lower-risk populations returned $1.26 for every dollar.
Missoula already does a kind of pre-kindergarten for children with special needs. The MCPS preschool program serves about 75 children a year, up from 35 just three years ago. Lubansky said it is limited to children with speech and language difficulties, physical or mental disabilities and other therapy needs. Children come to it through referrals from doctors or day care providers, parent concerns and public childhood health screenings.
Such a program could be the foundation of a citywide public preschool, Lubansky said. Or it could be attached to a new kind of pre-kindergarten program. But beyond a move last year to consolidate some of the MCPS preschool classrooms in the Jefferson School building, there isn't much push to expand the program.
“Given our financial situation, it's not something I'd advocate launching here,” MCPS Superintendent Jim Clark said. “If the state provides funding, we'll look at our facilities.”
All-day kindergarten is in a similar limbo, Clark said. While Gov. Schweitzer has made more specific calls for money, nothing's happened to make that a reality for this coming school year. And Missoula lacks the resources to do its own version beyond the existing all-day program at Lowell Elementary School.
“The state doesn't require kindergarten at all right now,” Clark said. “If it requires kindergarten, we've got other issues to deal with.”
Compulsory education in Montana doesn't begin before age 7. If kindergarten needs expand, so does the district's need for teachers and space. School district trustees have occasionally discussed the option of an all-city kindergarten center. In July, they formed a Property Ad Hoc Committee that includes space for more kindergartens as one of its topics.
And just two states to the west, Washington is bracing for the impact of a promised
$90 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation over 10 years for early childhood education. The state has already created a Department of Early Learning to supervise the changes.
The activity elsewhere may pay off for Montana. As Barmeyer put it, the state is ready to capitalize on the experience of others without having to suffer their mistakes or missteps.
“The fact we're last is probably an advantage,” Barmeyer said. “We can look at what they did and pick the best.”
Reporter Rob Chaney can be reached at 523-5382 or at rchaney@missoulian.com
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