Pre-k Widely Supported in Alabama

By Kelly Adams

Pre-k is one thing most Alabamians agree on, according to a new poll commissioned by the Alabama School Readiness Alliance, a pre-K advocacy organization.

7 in 10 Alabama voters support state funding of voluntary pre-k for all families that choose to utilize it, the poll finds.

Support is strong across demographic and partisan lines.

“Voters, no matter their party affiliation, realize that pre-kindergarten is one of the best tools we have to help all of Alabama’s children be ready to succeed in school,” says Jan Hume, executive director of the alliance.

The poll was jointly conducted by Democratic and Republican pollsters, who provided strategy memos for both political parties. Find more on the poll plus strategy memos at the alliance website here and here.

Top-rated for quality

For the fourth year in a row, Alabama’s state funded pre-kindergarten program, First Class, received a perfect “10” for quality from the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER).

Alabama and North Carolina are again the only two programs in the nation that received a perfect score on all 10 quality benchmarks in NIEER’s “2009 State Preschool Yearbook.”

Alabama’s weak spot is access – First Class reaches 3,870 students, which is about 7 percent of our 4-year-olds.

NIEER conducts and communicates research to support high quality, effective, early childhood education for all young children. Every year NIEER profiles state-funded pre-k programs in the United States and publishes these profiles in its State of Preschool Yearbook. NIEER uses a 10-point index that rates states on quality indicators such as class size, teacher qualifications, monitoring, etc.

The Alabama School Readiness Alliance (ASRA) seeks to continue these achievements, and spread high quality to other programs that aren’t state-funded. The highest priority issue facing Alabama’s future is closing the achievement gaps among children entering kindergarten.

Investing in Pre-K is investing in the future. Statistically, effective preschool programs produce more productive future generations, and with high standards and expectations, Alabama is looking to the future.

Kelly Adams is communications coordinator for the Alabama School Readiness Alliance. A+ is a founding partner of the alliance.