Advancing Young Children’s Right to Early Education Across North Carolina
As more parents, in dual and single income households, need to work and rely on non-parental care, investments in increasing access to pre-kindergarten programs make sense from both an economic and family support perspective.
Micere Keels & Peyton Upchurch | North Carolina Early Childhood Foundation | September 30, 2024
INTRODUCTION
Although many are advocating at the federal level for fully-funded universal preschool for three- and four-year-olds, we don’t yet have federal funding to make that possible. With federal funding prospects uncertain, state-level opportunities for funding have emerged in the pursuit of children's right to early education. Individual states are navigating this challenging terrain by leveraging constitutional amendments, expanding existing state investments, and identifying unique policy approaches to secure universal early education.
Building on the bipartisan push that NC voters have given legislators to stabilize and strengthen our state’s early care and learning system, we share insights from New America’s four-part series Establishing a Right to Early Education. Examining the successes and failures of various state-level initiatives can provide North Carolina policymakers with insights into the barriers and opportunities to increasing access to early education.
High Quality Preschool Pays Off. Research strongly favors investing in early education, and has shown that preschool does, in fact, pay off. In the short term, stable pre-kindergarten systems allow more parents and caregivers to participate more fully in the workforce, and for children, it boosts school readiness. In the long term, it lays the foundation for higher graduation rates and educational attainment, also contributing to a strong future workforce and greater economic productivity.
Universal preschool also has immediate labor market benefits for parents. New evidence shows that offering two years of high-quality preschool at zero cost boosted labor force participation among mothers in Washington, D.C., at both ends of the income spectrum and across all levels of educational attainment. In 2009, Washington, D.C., began an ambitious expansion that offers two years of universal, full-day preschool across the city’s public schools, public charters, and some private preschool programs administered by community-based organizations. The effects on women’s labor force participation was huge, and Washington, D.C., now boasts the highest maternal labor force participation rate in the nation. From 2008 to 2016, the labor force participation rate (LFPR) rose 15 points for mothers below 100 percent of the poverty line and 13 points for mothers above 500 percent of the poverty line. This is further evidence of the importance of access to early learning for women’s labor force participation. More can be seen in the figure below.
PROBLEM: Limited Availability and Limited Access to Public Preschool Slots
When we advocate that all North Carolina children should have a right to early education, we mean that all four-year-olds should have access to safe, high-quality early learning environments that prepare them not only for school, but for life. Early childhood education lays the foundation for children who arrive in kindergarten ready to learn. They are more likely to succeed academically, in the workforce, and as members of the community. Guaranteeing access to early education also enables parents and caregivers to choose to participate in the workforce instead of accepting that early care and education costs too much to make going to work economically viable; this helps build a stronger economy.
In North Carolina, NC Pre-K is the only no-cost preschool option available, but just for eligible families. A child must be four years old on or before August 31 to enroll in the state-funded NC Pre-K program, and the family must be below income-eligibility cutoffs. The income guidelines are such that a family of three making just $66,400 a year would be forced into the private preschool market to get their children ready for kindergarten. This leaves many modest-income families without the financial resources to pay out-of-pocket for private prekindergarten. The best available estimates indicate that average private preschool tuition in North Carolina is $8,610.
The issue of limited availability also affects income-eligible families, because there aren't enough NC Pre-K slots available for families who meet the income requirements. As detailed by myFutureNC’s, only 36 of 100 NC counties meet the statewide goal of having 75% of income-eligible children enrolled in NC Pre-K. We have put this data into the interactive map below to enable you to to see the percent of eligible 4-year-olds enrolled in the NC Pre-K program, in each county.
North Carolina is still rebounding from the pandemic loss of NC Pre-K slots.
- There were more than 31,000 slots during the 2019-20 preschool year.
- The number of slots decreased by about 900 in 2020-21,
- then decreased by about 200 more in 2021-22,
- and further decreased by about 100 more in 2022-23.
SOURCE: My Future NC
Given both the short- and long-term benefits, efforts should be increased to ensure that early learning for four-year-olds is universally available at no cost or at a sliding rate cost that all families can afford, and is of a quality that enhances development.
SOLUTION: State-Level Leadership
The landscape of early childhood education is undergoing a transformation that is driven by state-level initiatives and constitutional amendments. States like Florida and New Jersey are leveraging existing constitutional provisions to expand access to early childhood education programs. In 2002, Florida voters approved Amendment VIII, which implemented a statewide mandate on subsidized high-quality pre-K for all four-year-old children. States like California and New Mexico have pioneered robust investments in early childhood education. In 2020, New Mexico approved the allocation of $150 million annually for programs supporting early learning, which is now codified in their state constitution. By guaranteeing expanded access to early childhood education in its annual budget, New Mexico has ensured that there will be funding available for these initiatives, without question, year after year.
To ensure that increasing the availability of low and no cost pre-kindergarten does not come at the expense of quality, many factors need to be considered, such as the issue of workforce compensation and support for early childhood education professionals. States have many policy levers to affect quality, including program licensing standards, teacher and administrator credentialing standards, along with ongoing resources to support effective teaching, child learning standards and assessments, program quality monitoring systems, and curriculum guidance.
With federal action stalled, states like North Carolina must continue to commit to the innovation and expansion of high quality early education. One place for North Carolina to focus its efforts on universal access to early learning is on expanding NC Pre-K, the state’s pre-kindergarten program. About 21% of all 4-year-olds across the state are enrolled in a public preschool program. There aren’t clear numbers of how many are enrolled in private preschool programs. Despite a low 29th place nationwide ranking in public pre-K access, NC Pre-K ranks highly in quality. It is one of only thirteen states to meet at least nine of the ten quality benchmarks set by the National Institute for Early Education Research, falling short only in the category of educator professional development requirements.
The questions that must be answered are the same everywhere: balancing affordability, availability, quality, and accessibility, which means making decisions about eligibility criteria, reimbursement rates, funding mechanisms, early childhood educator compensation, and workplace conditions such as class size. There is a way forward. A report titled “Barriers to Expansion of NC Pre-K: Problems and Potential Solutions” provides ways to address the fundamental barrier to expanding NC Pre-K, which is that revenues and other resources available to NC Pre-K providers are too often inadequate to cover costs. Early childhood education in the United States is hinged on the commitment of state legislators to prioritize early education as a cornerstone of educational equity and economic opportunity.
The U.S. appears to be far away from creating a universal system of high quality early learning programs that are available at no or low cost to all families who enter the workforce. By prioritizing and investing in early education as a public good, North Carolina can reduce educational inequities, empower families to participate in the workforce more fully, and reap the benefits of long-term impacts on community and economy alike.
ACTION: Taking a Stand for Early Care and Education
While this brief focuses on one part of the solution, there is much more to understand about creating a sustainable solution to this many tentacled systemic problem. Join us for “Taking a Stand for Early Care and Education: North Carolina’s Fight for Access, Equity and Fairness” a ten-part series exploring a selected set of complex challenges plaguing North Carolina's child care and early education system.
Each month, we'll detail the interconnected threads that contribute to the persistence of the child care and early learning crisis. Through a detailed examination of data, expert insights, and advocacy perspectives, we will highlight systemic challenges and present actionable policy solutions to drive the transformation needed for a stable and equitable system. Join us as we delve into critical topics laying the groundwork for a robust dialogue on achieving universal pre-K, enhancing economic health through child care availability, and much more.
JOIN OUR EMAIL LIST to ensure you receive the next installment in this critical series to fix our early care and learning system.
In the next brief, we will discuss the efforts of three North Carolina counties that are taking steps to create universal pre-kindergarten for four-year-olds.
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