South leads nation in Early Education

After lagging the rest of the country in education for decades, the South now leads the nation in offering state-funded prekindergarten (Pre-K) to threeand four-year-old children.

Southern states now provide Pre-K to 19 percent of the region's three- and four-yearolds --- more than double the rate in the rest of the nation, according to a report recently released by the Southern Education Foundation (SEF) in Atlanta.

SEF's report shows that Southern states lead the nation not only in Pre-K enrollment rate but also for indicators of high-quality educational impact. Pre-Kindergarten in the South finds that:

Two-thirds of the states with the highest standards for Pre-K quality are in the South

Only six states require fullday Pre-K programs, and all six are in the South

Nine Southern states fund Pre-K above the national average cost per child

SEF's report shows that Pre- K is beginning to make a big difference in helping students start kindergarten school-ready. Pulling together independent research undertaken on the effects of Pre-K across the South over the last ten years, the report shows that high quality, state-supported Pre-K is helping all the South's childrenespecially low-income, African American and Latino childrenprepare for school.

In Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Oklahoma, South Carolina and West Virginia, independent researchers have undertaken recent studies that demonstrated positive effects of Pre-K on young children's learning in areas of language, literacy and math skills.

In some states, primarily Oklahoma, Louisiana and Georgia, the results appear phenomenal. For example, in Oklahoma, African American and Latino children made some of the largest learning gains in Pre-K. In Georgia, a study by Georgia State University shows that state-supported Pre-K is more effective than any other preschool program, including private preschool, in preventing failure in the first year of schooling.

In six Southern states, the SEF report notes, independent cost-benefit studies consistently document large economic gains come from investing in Pre-K. In Texas, for example, for each dollar invested in high quality Pre-K, the state can realize as much as $3.50 in direct benefits or as much as $7.70 in direct and indirect benefits. The research evidences substantial economic gains for all Southern states where studies have been undertaken.

But, according to SEF, Pre-K is not developing uniformly across the South. Mississippi is the only Southern state with no state Pre-K program, although it has the nation's largest percentage of young children in poverty. Alabama's state program has only a minuscule enrollment. In contrast, Georgia and Oklahoma have ranked at the top of the nation in terms of both enrollment and high standards for the last several years, and Arkansas has emerged as a new national leader in Pre-K.