Strong Start Kentucky: Investing in Quality Early Care and Education to Ensure Future Success

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Strong Start KentuckyInvesting in Quality Early
Care and Education to Ensure Future Success
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Early child development is economic development
with a very high return. I want to stress that
its a public return. I want to stress that its
an economic return. Economist Arthur
Rolnick Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis
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• Earlier investments are best..
• Brain research shows the opportunity for making
  a difference.

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Human Brain at Birth
14 Years Old
6 Years Old
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Program research showslong-term results

• High/Scope Study of Perry Preschool
• 123 children from low-income Michigan families
• High-quality program with well-trained teachers,
  daily classroom sessions and weekly home visits
• Participants tracked through age 40
• Benefit-Cost Ratio 17 to 1

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Perry Educational Effects
Source High/Scope Educational Research Foundation
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Perry Economic Effects at Age 40
Source High/Scope Educational Research Foundation
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Kentucky Progress

• 1990 School reform included preschool for
  disadvantaged 4-year-olds (150 of poverty) and
  3- and 4-year-olds with disabilities
• 2000 KIDS NOW enacted to improve quality of
  early care and education
• 2006 Public preschool funding increased 23.5
  million a year for a total of 75.1 million

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Kentuckys Children

• 277,000 children birth 5 years (2006)
• 21 live in poverty (20,650/yr for a family of
  four)
• 46 live below 200 of poverty (41,300/yr)
• 11 live in below 50 of poverty (10,325/yr)
• 63 of mothers with children under 6 are in the
  workforce

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• State-funded preschool serves
• 23,072 3- and 4-year-old children
• Of those 12,906 have a disability

• Head Start serves
• Nearly 16,500 children in 33 programs serving all
  120 counties
• (15,000 are 3 and 4 years of age)

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• 35 or about 38,000 3- and 4-year-old children
  are served in Kentuckys preschool program or
  Head Start

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• Child care
• 2,100 licensed child care facilities
• Serves 175,000 children 6 weeks school age
• 43,000 children receive child care assistance (at
  150 of poverty level)

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Recommendations

• Make quality Pre-K available to all Kentucky
  children
• Begin by expanding pre-k to children at 200 of
  poverty or below

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Involve public and community-based programs

• Community grants for programs developed by
  schools, child care and Head Start
• Leverage resources already available
• Use current classroom space

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Support Quality

• Adequate sustainable funding for KIDS NOW with
  expanded funding for
• STARS Quality Rating System
• Scholarships for child care and early education
  workers
• HANDS voluntary home visitation program

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Raise Standards

• Require all licensed and certified programs to
  participate in STARS quality rating
• Require all early care and education workers to
  have no less than a high school diploma or GED
• Require all directors to hold at least a
  directors credential

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Engage Families

• Create a public awareness campaign to inform
  parents
• Enhance quality of family partnerships through
  STARS rating system

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Early Investment is the Key

• The later in life we attempt to repair early
  deficits, the costlier the remediation becomes.
• James J. Heckman
• 2000 Nobel Laureate in Economics