At National Journal: The Tobacco Tax is a Place to Start

Last week, the National Journal Education Experts blog asked if funding pre-K with cigarette taxes was a good idea.

I argue that seeking out new and creative funding streams has merit and that the tobacco tax is worth talking about. But I also caution that such a tax should not and cannot realistically be the long-term solution:

We need to get to a place where pre-K is considered a regular of the PreK-12 education system and is funded as such. Right now pre-K is still viewed as a separate program, making it vulnerable to cuts and dissolution. Embedding pre-K in preK-12 systems must happen at the state level. In Oklahoma, for example, funding for pre-K comes from the state using the same formula that funds each K-12 grade. This should be the end goal in every state.

As we’ve noted before, the president’s pre-K plan is a long way from becoming law, but the fact that we are having these conversations about early education is important. One idea we’ve been considering here at New America is whether the president’s proposal should be passed as a Title I set-aside in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The benefit? Pre-K would become embedded in the federal government’s education law, helping to promote a pre-K – 12th grade education system instead of the K-12 system we currently have. The downside? The funding would not be able to be mandatory as the president’s budget proposal provides.