Charter Pre-K: Early Education's Missed Opportunity?
Blog Post
July 24, 2015
The evidence that quality early education can change kids’ lives for the better is solid. Good early education programs can improve children’s school readiness, reduce special ed placements and grade retention, and they help put kids on the right trajectory toward high school graduation, post-secondary education, and success in adulthood.
There is also strong evidence that urban high-performing charter schools offer greater learning gains for low income children than the schools they might otherwise attend.
So combining quality pre-K with high performing charters seems like an optimal match.Yet the intersection of charters and pre-K is an area of potential that remains largely untapped.
To assess the state of charter pre-K offerings across the states, Sara Mead and Ashley LiBetti Mitchel of Bellwether Education Partners, collaborated with the Thomas B. Fordham institute, and the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools on Pre-K and Charter Schools: Where State Policies Create Barriers to Collaboration. The report examines the 36 states which have both charter and pre-K laws, and the ease with which charters are able to provide pre-K offerings. The report found that most states present significant legal and practical barriers for charter schools to provide pre-K. Some of the key findings of the report include:
- Only seven states, Texas, Oklahoma, Iowa, Connecticut, Maine, Wisconsin and Washington, D.C. are considered “hospitable” to charter pre-K offerings
- Nine states have statutory or policy barriers that prevent charter schools from offering state funded pre-K
- Twenty three states permit charters to offer state funded pre-K, yet impose barriers in application, funding, or processes that inhibit their ability to actually offer pre-K
State Charter Laws: There are often barriers in legislation, regulation, or agency policy that prevent charters from providing pre-K. Some states define charter schools as K-12 organizations, which precludes their offering a pre-K program. For example, Ohio’s state law states that charter schools can only admit students between the ages of five and twenty two. The Senate’s proposed Every Child Achieves Act to reauthorize ESEA includes an update to the federal charter school program, which would add early childhood education (pre-K) to what charter school activities can receive federal funded. If this update to ESEA passes, it could encourage some states to update their laws to match what’s allowable by the federal government.
Financing: Some states have low pre-K funding to begin with, and accessing those funds is often very difficult for charter schools. Another obstacle is that the pre-K funding in many states does not match the cost of program delivery. For instance, North Carolina requires charters that wish to offer pre-K to operate a full day program yet only funds the pre-K program at 61 percent of what the same school recieves for a K-12 student. In other states, laws that prevent charters from accessing state pre-K funding also prevent them from accessing competitive pre-K grants and other funding sources.
State Preschool Programs: The way that state pre-K programs are set up can also limit charter offerings. Some states administer pre-K through agencies other than the state department of education. Arkansas, for example, administers pre-K through the Department of Human Services. Even when the state department of education oversees pre-K, there is often a lack of coordination between those responsible for pre-K and those responsible for charter schools. Other state pre-K program barriers include:
- limited funding for pre-K seats, which means administrators do not see the need to add more providers to the marketplace
- program quality standards
- pre-K programs that are targeted for low income students conflict with state laws prohibiting charters from establishing admissions criteria
Let’s delve a little deeper into a couple of state examples. Washington, D.C. was ranked the most hospitable state for charter pre-K offerings, scoring 50/50 on the report’s ranking. Fifty-eight charter schools offer pre-K out of the 53 elementary charter schools in D.C. (The number of pre-K charter offerings is higher than the number of elementary schools because some charters in D.C. solely offer pre-K, such as the AppleTree Institute.) The District of Columbia offers universal pre-K for District resident children, age 3 and 4. The per-student funding formula allows both DCPS and charter schools to receive the same per pupil funding for every child they enroll. The large size of D.C.’s pre-K program and equivalent per-pupil funding opens the marketplace for more providers of pre-K. Further, children are allowed to automatically re-enroll from charter pre-K to kindergarten, helping to enable smoother transitions and learning continuity. All of these policies combined make D.C. the top state in pre-K and charter collaborations.
Conversely, Ohio has 228 charter schools, none of which offer pre-K. This is due to challenges in accessing pre-K funding, and because charters are defined as serving students between the ages of five and twenty two. The state has interpreted this to mean that charter schools cannot apply for pre-K funding. Even if charters did qualify for the state’s pre-K funding, it is a small program and there are limited dollars. So, there is little space for new providers.
The report recommends that moving forward, policymakers and advocates should not only expand high quality charter schools and high quality pre-K for needy children, they should also alter policies and practices that deter charters from offering pre-K. Among the specific recommendations:
- Ensure that the state and federal definitions of a charter includes pre-K
- Make certain that charters have equal access to state pre-K funds
- Ensure that federal preschool programs such as Head Start provide equitable access to funding for charter schools