Report: State struggling on preschool

Despite a 150 percent increase in funding for pre-kindergarten programs in the past three years, Colorado still ranks near the bottom in program quality and enrollment, according to a national report released Wednesday.

The Colorado Preschool Program, which focuses on children from low-income and at-risk families, in 2007 enrolled only 15 percent of 4-year-olds and 3 percent of 3-year-olds who could benefit from the early educational help, according to Pre-K Now, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group.

In El Paso County 1,542 children are in pre-kindergarten programs.

"Despite a renewed focus on public funded pre-kindergarten, too many of Colorado's young children are left out and will start school unprepared," Libby Doggett, executive director of Pre-K Now, said in a statement.

The study places the blame on the budget constraints of the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights, or TABOR.

State officials and educators agree with the report's conclusions. The study, called "Votes Count: Legislative Action on Pre-K Fiscal Year 2009," was supported by the Pew Charitable Trusts.

Colorado is at the bottom of the heap with Nevada, Arizona, Ohio and Kansas. The highest quality voluntary state programs were found in Oklahoma, West Virginia, Illinois, Tennessee and Arkansas. Twelve states have no state-funded programs.

Colorado was praised in the report for its catch-up efforts. It notes the fiscal year 2009 funding increase is $21 million. That increases the program budget to $67.3 million and provides an additional 6,254 slots to raise enrollment to 20,160, according to Colorado Department of Education figures.

Many studies have found that children from poor and at-risk families who attend pre-kindergarten do much better in school academically, socially and emotionally and that millions of dollars can ultimately be saved in later intervention programs.

"Children who don't start with skills needed to succeed are more likely to drop out of school, have teen pregnancies, end up in jail and on welfare," said Noreen Landis Tyson, director of the nonprofit Community Partnership for Child Development, which oversees federally funded head start programs in El Paso County and also contracts with several local school districts to run their state-funded pre-kindergarten programs.

The pre-kindergarten program was started in 1989, and soon after Taxpayer's Bill of Rights restrictions prevented substantial expansion of state-funded pre-kindergarten, said Lt. Gov. Barbara O'Brien, who spent 16 years as president of Colorado Children's Campaign, which helped create the state preschool program.

Much of the 2008-09 money is available because of legislation signed last year by Gov. Bill Ritter. That legislation, called the Colorado Children's Amendment, froze mill levies that would have otherwise fallen, providing school districts more tax funds. Ritter, who had vowed to fund early childhood education as part of his campaign, is appealing a lower court ruling that said the freeze was unconstitutional. The state Supreme Court will take up the issue in January.

"It has incredible value," said Grant Schmidt, superintendent of Falcon School District 49. But such programs are sometimes misunderstood. "This isn't child care and it does not push children beyond their abilities," he said. "We've found that it increases readiness for school dramatically."

Falcon has pre-kindergarten classes in all its elementary schools.

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Contact the writer: 636-0371 or carol.mcgraw@gazette.com