By Rick GarciaThe research is in. Educators have long known that attending preschool makes a difference throughout the balance of a child’s life. That makes the recent research from the Annie E. Casey Foundation “Kids Count 2013 Report” critical to the Michigan Alliance of Latinos Moving toward Advancement (MI-ALMA) Michigan’s Statewide Hispanic Advocacy and Research group. The Kids Count report points out that Latino children have the lowest rate of preschool attendance of any race or ethnic group in the United States.
The rest of the picture should motivate the Latino Community to review the other factors that determine school success and take action to address them:
*34% of Latino children lived in poverty in 2011, the US average was 24% and the average for all nonLatino white children was 23%
*Latino children were most likely to come to school from a household where the head of that home had not earned a diploma
*42% of Latino children come to school from a single-parent home, compared to 25% for non-Latino white students
We have known for decades that the education level of the parents, especially the mother, is a primary factor in a child’s school success. Children from poverty, who arrive in Kindergarten, are already an average of six months behind their peers, according to James Heckman in the New York Times. The “education gap” exists when they arrive, he reports, and school does not change that.
Arne Duncan, the U.S. Secretary of Education, added that Latino children represent the fastest growing segment of the U.S. young child population under the age of five, yet less than half of Hispanic children are enrolled in any early learning program. That means 5-year-olds are entering school 1 to 2 years behind, which identifies the achievement gap’s origin.
Hispanic children, who were in kindergarten for the first time in the 2010-11 school year, had lower scores on an age-appropriate reading assessment than Caucasian, African-American and Asian children
and lower scores on an age-appropriate math assessment than Caucasian, Asian, and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander children.
Rachel Moreno, a long-time Educator, Administrator and MI-ALMA’s Chairperson, says that Michigan K-12 and intermediate school districts need to assess their delivery systems to the Latino communities they serve. “How effective are their communications with Latino parents? How comprehensive are their efforts to contact and recruit Latino children into preschool programs?” says Moreno, who also added that the Michigan Department of Education shows that the population of Hispanic children is growing in Michigan. “Preschool for Latino children should be a priority throughout the state”.
According to the Michigan League for Public Policy (MLPP), Gov. Snyder and lawmakers increased funding in the 2014 state budget for the Michigan Great Start Readiness Program (GSRP) by $65 million—an increase of 60% over the current year.
Michigan fares out better than most other States like California, Texas and Florida. According to an article from Jacquellena Carrero of NBC Latino, the biggest example of cuts to the Head Start program came in the latest numbers released in August 2013 by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS0). More than 57,000 children will be cut from Head Start because of the ongoing federal budget cuts known as sequestration. The federal pre-kindergarten education program helps tens of thousands of low income families across the nation get access to early learning programs, day care, and medical care among other services. The cuts have slashed over $400 million from the programs $8 billion budget.
The GSRP has been providing a high-quality preschool education to low-income 4-year-olds since 1985, and the expansion this fall will open up an estimated 19,000 new half-day preschool slots to help serve the nearly 30,000 Michigan 4-year-olds who are eligible but not enrolled in the program.
MLPP has also stated in their articles that the benefits to children of the GSRP are well documented. The High Scope Research Foundation has shown that children who participate in the GSRP are more ready for school, perform better on state standardized tests four years later, are less likely to be held back a grade, and more often graduate from high school on time. Graduates are more likely to hold jobs, earn more, rely less on public assistance, and are not as likely to be involved in criminal activity.
The benefits to the state are also clear. The single best predictor of economic prosperity is a state’s success in educating and preparing its workforce, and the path that holds the greatest promise for educational achievement is the investment in young children.
As for getting Latino children into preschool, Duncan said hurdles include limited access to early education programs or the fact some Hispanic families don’t realize its importance.
“At the end of the day, parents want the right thing for their kids,” Duncan said.
Rick Garcia, a nonprofit executive, a civil rights advocate, blogger and a contributing writer for The New Citizens Press can be reached at rrgarcianrg@gmail.com
This was printed in the August 25, 2013 – September 7, 2013 Edition
