Trends in Educational Funding - Trends In Early Childhood Education

Number of 3-5-Year Olds, Number Enrolled in Preprimary School, and Number Enrolled in Head Start: 1965-1999

In 1965, there were 12.5 million children between the ages of 3 and 5. Only 27% of them (3.4 million) were enrolled in preprimary education.¹² By 1999, the number of children in the age group had declined to 11.9 million, but 66% (7.8 million) were enrolled in preprimary education. In 1970, 17% of children in the age group attended preprimary programs for a full day; by 1999 the figure was 53%. In 34 years, we moved from a society where very young children stayed at home with Mom to a society in which a majority of very young children head off every weekday morning for a full day at school.

During this period, the federal government got involved in education in a very big and radical way. The Head Start program, a component of President Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty, assumed parental obligations by delivering educational, health, nutritional, and social services to poor children and their families. The idea dates back to the "infant schools" movement of the early 19th century. Infant schools were designed for the moral training of poor children while their mothers worked. It was believed that infant schools would reduce poverty and welfare costs. The infant school movement died out for various reasons. One was lack of funding, another teacher complaints about the disruptive nature of the young "students."

Widespread interest in preschool education revived in the 1960s, just when poverty became a focus of attention and legislation. Head Start was formed based on the theory that an early investment in nurturing at-risk children will pay off later in fewer strains on social services and the justice system. The assumption is that the federal government can be an appropriate and effective provider of this nurturing.

Head Start began as a summer-only program. It was soon converted to a year-round program. Similar programs for advantaged children sprang up (the little ones got a leg up in the college admissions race and Moms went off to work). In 1995 Head Start began offering services to pregnant women and low-income families with infants and toddlers.

While the federal government took on the job of helping the youngest of the poor, state and local governments got more involved in preprimary education at the kindergarten level. Kindergartens were established in Germany in 1837; the idea soon caught on in the United States. But at the time Head Start began, 32 states didn't have kindergartens. Today 39 states are required to offer kindergarten, but attendance is mandatory in only 15 states.¹³ The National Education Association (NEA) was an early supporter of kindergartens and currently endorses mandatory kindergarten in every state. By no means does this issue enjoy universal support. Conservative columnist Phyllis Schlafly, for one, is firmly opposed, as is the National Center for Home Education. Commenting on an NEA proposal for public school education of children from birth through age 8, Schlafly called it "babysitting"; she is equally scornful of an NEA call for mandatory kindergarten.

Still, early childhood education and Head Start enjoy wide support. How far behind have we left the days when most little children stayed home with Mom? One of the National Education Goals for the year 2000, adopted by Congress, is that "all children will have access to high-quality and developmentally appropriate preschool programs that help prepare children for school."

In the next panel we will look at the specifics of Head Start's bipartisan financial support. Most studies have found that the initial positive effects of the Head Start program are short-lived. One proposed solution? Make Head Start programs longer than one year, and make them better — a very expensive proposition indeed, as we shall see.

Sources: Charts: U.S. Bureau of the Census. Statistical Abstract of the United States 2001. Table 225. Current Population Reports, P20-533. Current Population Survey Poverty and Health Statistics Branch/HHES Division. Nancy Stevenson. "A modest proposal: Raising children by barnyard standards." Online. Available: http://www.lib.niu.edu/ipo/ii940721.html. May 15, 2002. "The NEA Proves Itself Extremist Again." The Phyllis Schlafly Report. Vol. 29. No. 1. August 1995. Online. Available: http://www.eagleforum.org/. May 15, 2002. "Mandatory Kindergarten Is Unnecessary." National Center for Home Education. Online. Available: http://www.hslda.org. May 14, 2002. Bowen, Ezra. "Trying to jump-start toddlers; experts blast the parental push for preschool 'hothouses.' Time 7 April 1986, p.66.