S. Paul Reville on the policy challenges facing advocates for early childhood education
As Deborah Stipek argues ("Early Childhood Education at a Crossroads"), there is “good news” to celebrate in the growing momentum in many states for increasing access to and building the quality of early childhood education. However, state policymakers confront a number of formidable challenges in taking this movement to the next level. Among these are:- Budget constraints: Most of the states have been dealing with severe budget situations, in which fixed costs are rising at unacceptable levels and creating strong downward pressure on discretionary spending. Within this environment, early childhood education competes against other education interests, notably the behemoth K-12 system and higher education. Sometimes, early childhood education loses out in the face of such well-organized and overwhelming competition. Other times, policymakers assume that they have done their educational-funding duty by having made substantial efforts in one of these sectors, e.g. K-12 reform.
- System fragmentation: Not only are most state education systems fragmented into preK, K-12, and higher education boxes, but within the world of preK, there are a number of sometimes conflicting interests: private providers, nonprofit providers, public providers, early childhood educators and day-care providers of various descriptions. These interests not only compete but at worst, cancel one another out. Policymakers can get fed up with the internecine conflict and move on to areas represented by more unified interests.
- Complex delivery system: Serving this fragmented field is a complex delivery system that sometimes pits one government bureaucracy against another. Early childhood funding can be subject to intra-governmental politics which may have more to do with historical or current conflicts than with quality work in the field.
- Educational ambivalence: Public educators readily acknowledge the importance to their work of high-quality early childhood education, but these same educators are sometimes resentful of early childhood being funded at the apparent expense of K-12 funds. Conversely, private and nonprofit early childhood providers are understandably wary of the K-12 system’s scope and capacity and/or perceived interest in absorbing the entire pre-K system at the expense of existing providers.
The “good news” is that many states are proceeding in spite of these obstacles. The field has organized to overcome some of these obstacles and is speaking in a more unified voice about the need for increased access, higher standards, and a quality workforce.
Strong groups like Strategies for Children in Massachusetts are emerging to bring the fragmented field together and, with the help of outstanding advocate/leaders like Margaret Blood, the president of Strategies for Children, building a powerful, diverse coalition. The business community, seeing its own interests at stake, has joined the effort, while university researchers continue to supply data in support of a compelling case statement for the developmental and educational imperatives addressed by early childhood education.
Early education advocacy leaders have wisely pegged their fortunes to the deeply embedded standards movement that has so graphically underlined the achievement gaps in our society. Utilizing data that now show substantial achievement gaps, especially for students of low socioeconomic status, leaders are challenging policymakers to invest in early childhood education as the most promising strategy for closing those gaps before they become permanent. Advocates will need to be skillful in overcoming some of these substantial challenges, but they are clearly making progress.
S. Paul Reville is a lecturer in education at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education and the executive director of the Rennie Center for Education Research and Policy at MassINC.
