While state pre-K programs are suffering cuts nationwide, Alabama’s small pre-K program has held fairly steady in funding and is looking for ways to maximize its dollars to add more students to its rolls.
States across the nation are struggling to maintain pre-K funding as they deal with revenue shortfalls caused by persistent economic woes that began in 2008.
Alabama’s pre-K funding rose from $4.3 million in 2005 to $18.3 million in 2010 and held steady in 2011. This year, the program has about $17.9 million.
There are about 60,000 pre-K aged children in Alabama. About 10,000 of them are enrolled in federally-funded Head Start programs and 3,880 are in state funded pre-K.
Alabama’s pre-K program is a diverse delivery system, meaning that a number of entities – local school systems, private daycares, churches, etc. - can receive grants to provide pre-K programs for students.
The number of pre-K classrooms in Alabama has risen from about 50 in 2005 to 217 today.
Jan Hume, director of Alabama’s Office of School Readiness, said she predicts next year’s budget will be tight, but that her office is looking into ways to maximize the efficiency of its spending to provide pre-K programs to more students.
Hume said possible ways include partnering with school systems to provide training for instructors and examining the program’s grant process to find efficiencies.
According to Pre-K Now, a Pew Center for the States program, providing students with quality pre-K programs helps them come to school better equipped to learn. Providing pre-K programs to children nationwide would cost about $70 billion, according to the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University.
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