Arkansas ranks high in a national pre-K study but the state is falling behind in enrollment and equal access for poor students. Education Week’s annual “Quality Counts” report explores the complex landscape that defines early-childhood services in the U.S. Arkansas performs well in some areas, but not in others.
According to the report, “Preparing to Launch: Early Childhood’s Academic Countdown,” Arkansas’s Early Childhood Education Index Ranking is 9th in the nation. Arkansas scored first in the nation for providing full-day preschool. The state also scored high marks in Head Start Enrollment and full-day Kindergarten programs. A lot of states only have half-day programs. Arkansas has a good number of full-day programs due to the initial investment in Arkansas Better Chance (ABC). ABC received a $100 million boost from the state in 2008, but has not seen one dime of a funding increase since.
Arkansas ranked 46th in enrollment gains, actually losing 2.3 percent of its enrollment between 2008 and 2013. The state has not been able to provide any additional pre-K slots due to static funding.
Jerri Derlikowski, education policy director for Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families (AACF), says she’s worried about the lack of funding for pre-K in Arkansas. She says without a cost-of-living adjustment for pre-K funding, at a minimum, the quality of our pre-K programs will continue to drop. Some programs may also be forced to close as they reach the breaking point on finding ways to cover increased costs with no increases in revenue.
“We won’t be able to sustain our current program without adequate funding,” Derlikowski says. “We’re glad the report recognizes areas in which Arkansas really excels at pre-K, but the lack of funding is real, and it will hurt us in the future. The lack of investment doesn’t just hurt our ranking in a study, it has a very real impact on the education of our children and their ability to compete in the global economy.”
Derlikowski says she particularly troubled by the state’s ranking in the gap in attendance between poor children and their more affluent counterparts. Sixty-four percent of 3- and 4-year-olds in households earning $100,000 or more attend pre-K. Only 40 percent of kids who live in households that make less than $20,000 per year do so. Pre-K helps low-income students gain academic ground, but if there’s no room for those students in the state’s pre-K program, it can hurt their chances at a successful academic career.
The report also took a look at K-12 achievement. Arkansas ranked 36th overall.