With strawberries and lemonade for refreshments and reporters and yawning children as an audience, Gov. Peter Shumlin on Wednesday unveiled a public-private plan to expand pre-kindergarten programs in Vermont.
The project is a partnership between the state and education-minded philanthropists; each entity is chipping in $400,000 to defray pre-K costs in 12 Vermont towns. The grants, which are meant to encourage partnerships between school districts and child care providers offering pre-K, can be spent on tuition, staffing and start-up costs for new programs.
The $800,000, Shumlin said, will “buy access to early education” for children in those 12 towns. Ten of the towns already have pre-K programs in place and will use the money to expand their capacity; the other two will start programs with their portion of the funds.
“Forget the dollars, what really matters is that it gives our kids an opportunity to have a successful life,” Shumlin said. “We know that when we invest in early childhood education it avoids incarceration and other expenses later on.”
Shumlin’s plan piggybacks on an eight-year effort on the part of the Permanent Fund for Vermont’s Children, which set up a fund called the Vermont Community Preschool Collaborative (VCPC) to increase the number of children who attend pre-K programs.
The announcement of the public-private partnership came Wednesday at the Heartworks Preschool in Williston, but Eddie Gale, program director for the A.D. Henderson Foundation, which is part of the VCPC, said Shumlin first approached the group in 2011, shortly after he was elected.
“Forget the dollars, what really matters is that it gives our kids an opportunity to have a successful life.”
Gov. Peter Shumlin
The state’s contribution, included in the 2014 budget, was carved out the Agency of Education’s budget. It’s coming from another early education program that serves “at-risk” children. The Early Education Initiative program, which started in 1987, distributes one-year grants of between $10,000 and $30,000 to school districts, child care centers and pre-K programs to help “at-risk children” gain access to early education.
A homeless child, for instance, or a child with developmental delays, could qualify as “at-risk.” Children living at or below 185 percent of the federal poverty line and children who have been abused or neglected would also fall into that category.
The state currently spends about $1 million a year on the Early Education Initiative, so the reallocation of funds will cut the program by nearly half.
John Fisher, deputy commissioner of education, said rerouting the money made sense because it allows the state to leverage more private sector money. “The investment here was doubling the impact of the funds,” he said.
Manuela Fonseca, early education coordinator for the Agency of Education, said the new initiative will have a longer-lasting benefit because it “builds bridges” between school districts and child care centers that are operating pre-K programs.
“This kicks off something that’s much more sustainable,” Fonseca said.
Roughly 40 percent of eligible children in the state are enrolled in a pre-K program. The Shumlin administration and its private partners estimate that their joint endeavor will bring 400 more children on board.
Three- and 4-year-olds have featured prominently in the governor’s policy proposals this year. Shumlin’s plan to invest nearly $17 million in state-subsidized child care was shot down in the Legislature because lawmakers objected to the funding source — the state’s Earned Income Tax Credit, which benefits low-income working Vermonters.
The governor said he hasn’t given up trying to improve child care options, but he declined to say whether he’ll offer a similar proposal when the Legislature reconvenes in January.
“We are going to be working together with those that are still committed to making this happen to see if we can find another way to skin the cat,” Shumlin said.
The $400,000 for pre-K was part two of Shumlin’s plan to boost opportunities for 3- and 4-year-olds.
Lawmakers came up with a more ambitious plan — a bill that would have required school districts to pay for 10 hours of pre-K for every eligible child — but it was held up in the Senate over concerns about its price tag.
The $800,000 will be divided among Essex Town, Barre City, Barre Town, Bennington, Danville, Hartford, Hinesburg, Lyndonville, Milton, Pownal, Pittsford and Woodford.
