A Star Tribune editorial about findings presented at our education summit focused — as did much of the media coverage — on early childhood programs as a worthy investment. Though it's critical to keep kids from running off the education pathway later, there's a compelling case for getting kids ready to succeed in school from the start. And Minnesota does not invest much in school readiness programs.
A key priority is improving support for kids from birth to age 5. Only 1.9 percent of Minnesota 4-year-olds had access to prekindergarten classes in 2005, placing the state 36th in the nation on that measure. During the same year, Minnesota spent an average of slightly more than $283 per child for school readiness and $270 per child for Early Childhood and Family Education (ECFE) programs. Those expenditures don't measure up to Wisconsin, Michigan and Illinois -- all states that spend an average of $2,980 or more per child for prekindergarten programs.
That's from the research by the U of M's Arthur J. Reynolds. Minnesota ranks even worse than it appears, because the editorial chose the year for which funding data was available. Reynolds also reported Minnesota's percentage of participation dropped in 2006, putting us in 37th place — out of the 38 states that fund any such programs.
Being in 37th place sounds bad enough. But in fact, we're a whisker from being last.
— Charlie Quimby
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