Pitching for Preschool, With Eye on Future
Kaine's Plan to Expand Access Bumps Against Fiscal Forecast, Frustration Over Funding Formula

By Kirstin Downey
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 25, 2007

For Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D), improving access to preschool is a signature issue. In 2005, he ran for the office on a platform that pledged to provide universal access to preschool for the state's 100,000 4-year-olds.

Fiscal realities, however, have collided with that $300 million-a-year plan, and Kaine is now pushing ahead with a scaled-back proposal that would enroll about 17,000 more children from low-income families, at a cost of about $125 million. The proposal has won plaudits from Northern Virginia officials, who say that research shows that a good preschool education boosts academic achievement later.

"It's such a common-sense investment in our future," said Alexandria City Council member Rob Krupicka (D), who has worked with the governor's preschool task force. "People are almost universally supportive of it."

Krupicka said that in the current fiscal environment, the governor's revised plan is more "practical."

The need for more preschool options is particularly acute in Alexandria and Arlington County, where the wait time can last longer than a year. At a City Council meeting in June, Mayor William D. Euille (D) said the issue was becoming a "critical" concern.

A state plan that encourages more preschool centers to open could help. At the June meeting, council member Timothy Lovain (D) suggested that the city consider changing zoning rules to make it easier for people to operate centers.

There is a shortage in Arlington, too, said Iris Constantino, director of the KinderCare program on Ivy Street in Clarendon. "They're mostly full," she said.

But even enthusiastic advocates of the governor's efforts say Kaine's plan may not benefit Alexandria and Arlington County as much as other parts of the state.

"It's good," said Carol Farrell, director of Alexandria's Office for Early Childhood Development. "But the issue is what it will look like. That's a question that has yet to be answered."

At issue is the way the state funds the Virginia Preschool Initiative program. Like other educational programs, the state grants money to local governments under a formula called the "composite index," which calculates how much each jurisdiction should receive based on the community's wealth. In other words, wealthy jurisdictions are expected to provide a larger share of education funding while poorer areas receive more state help.

Under the formula, Alexandria and Arlington County receive about $1,140 per child per year, although the cost of providing a high-quality preschool experience is estimated at $9,000 per year. In contrast, poorer areas of the state, such as the Tidewater region, are given as much as $5,400 per year per eligible child. Legislators from poorer areas like the arrangement.

"It's not in their best interests to change this formula," Farrell said.

Arlington County has partially compensated for the funding discrepancy by operating preschool programs in public school buildings, which can be used for free. There are 43 preschool programs operating in Arlington public schools, serving 634 4-year-olds, compared with two programs in 1999.

"We've increased our service each year since 1999," said Superintendent Robert G. Smith. "The School Board has said pretty clearly it wants pre-K in neighborhood schools. The children are part of the school community from the beginning."

In Alexandria, there is one preschool operating in a public school.

The funding discrepancy frustrates local officials and advocates, who have long complained that downstate politicians take money generated in Northern Virginia to benefit their communities and return only a small portion of it to help jurisdictions here.

"We're an economic engine, and we've been locked out of the decision making for so long," said Mary H. Hynes, who served 12 years on the Arlington School Board and is running for the County Board.

If the governor uses the same formula to calculate funding for the revised proposal, local governments could be asked to make up large shortfalls.

"It won't help us at all to expand our program," said Barbara Mason, executive director of the Child and Family Network Centers, which operates four sites in Alexandria and two in Arlington County. She said she is already stretched thin in raising money to make up the difference between state funding and program costs for the children she serves.

"The way VPI is funded is not a good thing for us in Alexandria, nor does it serve the kids," said Sean McEnearney, who chaired the city's Early Childhood Commission. "Like a lot of things in this state, we need to realize it no longer serves this constituency."

Officials and advocates said they are lobbying the governor to adjust the formula.

Kaine is considering remedies, said Kathy Glazer, executive director of the Governor's Working Group on Early Childhood Initiatives.

"We're very aware of it, and we are looking at ways that it could be addressed," Glazer said. "It's definitely a significant barrier."

The governor will unveil specific provisions when he presents his two-year budget to the General Assembly in mid-December.

Nevertheless, McEnearney said, preschool advocates in Alexandria and Arlington County support the governor's plan "because there are a lot of kids who need the help in Virginia."

Constantino said that boosting the quality of home-based child care also is crucial to ensuring children get a good start and that the governor's program, even if limited, could help. She said she thinks it will spur innovative thinking about preschool education.

Compounding the complexity of the preschool problem is the vast number of programs in existence. Some are private, some are public. Some are school-based, some operate out of homes. Some are full-day, some are half-day. Some are federally funded, linked to programs such as Head Start and Welfare to Work. Many operate with an array of funding sources, each with different criteria. Many affluent parents pay for their children to attend preschool; low-income families get child care where they can.

"It's a wild, confusing set of programs," Hynes said.

Hynes also questioned whether Kaine will be able to proceed with his plan, given the state's gloomy financial forecast. The governor recently announced that the state is facing a $640 million budget shortfall for the coming fiscal year.

"There isn't any money now for the governor's program," Hynes said.

Regardless of what happens with the governor's plan, McEnearney said, Alexandria needs to come up with creative solutions of its own. He suggested, for example, that the city consider hiring a full-time grant writer to seek funding from charitable foundations.

Krupicka said churches should be encouraged to open preschool programs.

He cited statistics that he said show the value of the programs. About 70 percent of Alexandria children attend some preschool, and who they are becomes evident quickly when they get to kindergarten. Some youngsters begin slipping behind almost immediately, and 8 percent are forced to repeat kindergarten. About 250 to 300 children, he said, show up on the first day of kindergarten without a preschool experience.

"It's probably the greatest equalizer we know of to close the achievement gap before children ever get to school, so they get to kindergarten with the skills they need to succeed," Krupicka said.

"The community will need to decide if it is an important enough issue to make a commitment to it," he said.