Virginia's Pre-K Initiative...Gathering Steam

We’re going to keep working to give every Virginia child a world-class education, and we’re going to start sooner, by offering prekindergarten to every Virginia four year old. –Governor Timothy Kaine, November 7, 2005 (Samuels, 2005).

Universal pre-kindergarten was a core element of Virginia Governor Kaine’s election platform, and he reiterated this policy position during his election-night speech in 2005. While the governor has not been able to implement his policy of universal pre-K, he has been able to serve as an “issue catalyst” by raising the profile of preschool education in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
One of the Governor's early acts after taking office was to issue Executive Order 7, which established the Start Strong Council. This advisory council has played an important role in policy definition and agenda setting. The council includes approximately 25 leaders from business, schools, the faith community, private child care, Head Start, and state- and local-elected officials. The Council was given several responsibilities, including developing statewide goals and best practices for “expanding opportunities for 4 year olds to access quality pre-kindergarten programs” (Executive Order 7, 2006). The Council’s first report, issued in December 2006, included several policy recommendations to the Governor, including the development of a quality ratings system for preschool settings and a proposal for grant-funded preschool pilots to test innovative program strategies.

The Governor has attempted to build support for his pre-kindergarten policy initiative in other ways as well. The Governor’s Early Childhood Summits, which have been held twice during the past two years, are designed to inform business and community leaders, elected officials, and other stakeholders about the benefits of investing in early childhood education,.

Response to the Governor's pre-kindergarten initiative have been decidedly mixed. For the most part, organizations such as the Virginia Metropolitan League, the Virginia Association of Counties, the Virginia Association of Elementary School Principals, the Virginia Education Association, and the Parent Teacher Association have been very supportive. Other groups, including the association of superintendents and local school boards, have expressed strong opinions about various aspects of the initiative. While these two groups were generally supportive of pre-kindergarten, they have had concerns about the governance structure and the delivery mechanism of the initiative. In addition, while many private providers have been enthusiastic about the Governor’s intention to incorporate both public and private providers for preschool delivery, there have been a few vocal opponents from this constituency. There has been growing interest nationally in early childhood education as a future workforce investment, and state-level economic development and workforce development interest groups have followed suit by demonstrating support for this policy issue.

Virginia's preschool pilot initiative, which is in the starting gate, is considered a critical component of the Governor’s policy setting activities, since the Governor undoubtedly hopes to demonstrate through this experiment the feasibility of the innovative strategies recommended by the Start Strong Council, such as the diverse delivery network (including both public and private partners), incorporating a parent tuition component, and utilizing local school readiness councils to ensure systemic planning at the local level. Each of the pilot sites will receive strong support from the Department of Education, including technical assistance and start-up funds in addition to the per pupil funding, in order to optimize the conditions for success. An external program evaluation will be conducted on all pilots to assess how well their partnerships and other strategies worked, the level of quality in the various public and private learning settings, and the outcomes for the participating children. Formative and summative evaluation data will provide the Start Strong Council and the Governor’s office with critical information to evaluate this policy.

The preschool pilot initiative had a bumpy start earlier this year when the 2007 General Assembly made substantial changes to the budget language for the preschool pilots, reducing the budget by $2.1 million, limiting participation in the pilots to at-risk children, and adding evaluation requirements for selecting providers. Considering this was a mid-biennium budget, however, the initiative should be viewed as successful for having secured any funding at all. I take this to be a positive sign that the preschool policy issue will not only remain on the state agenda but will pick up additional support over time as the legislators and the public realize the effectiveness of pre-kindergarten in preparing children for success in school.