Subprime Learning: Our Report on Early Education since the Great Recession

Five years ago today, President Barack Obama took his first oath of office and the Great Recession was at its height. Many states had already rolled out pre-K programs and Obama had campaigned on a promise of bringing $10 billion in new investments to early childhood. And yet severe financial insecurity was gripping the nation. What was in store for early education?

Today we have some answers. In a report released today, Subprime Learning: Early Education in America since the Great Recession, we show that learning opportunities essentially stagnated for children from birth up through third grade. [PLEASE NOTE: Today’s event was postponed due to snow closures. New date to be announced as soon as possible.]

Using data related to demographics, funding, student achievement, and policy, we use five symbols throughout the report to show how early education fared in the United States between 2009 and 2013. See graphic below.

We show that access to state pre-K only slightly expanded, high-quality affordable child care remained rare, kindergarten expansion was virtually ignored, and a greater number of parents struggled to support their families. After a recession triggered by subprime lending, too many children experienced subprime learning.

The report does find a few bright spots. The stimulus bill of 2009 enabled President Obama to make good on his promise of an additional $10-billion in funding. States have built systems for rating child care quality and are developing tools to track children’s progress. Educators and policymakers are making concerted efforts to link services within and across the ages, from birth through the K-3 grades of school.

Some key findings in the report:

Nationwide numbers show that enrollment in public pre-K increased only slightly, from 40 percent in 2009 to 42 percent in 2012.

Per-pupil funding for state pre-K dropped across the five years.

Head Start received some boosts in funding until the sequester and federal government shutdown led to cuts.

Only one additional state required districts to provide full-day kindergarten, bringing the nationwide number to 11.

Recent policies paid no attention to the rising population of dual-language learners, especially in the early years when bilingualism could more easily take hold.

Kindergarten data from 2010 showed achievement gaps between rich and poor. The National Assessment of Educational Progress showed that although fourth-grade test scores inched up on average, income gaps have widened since 2009.

Access and funding varied widely by state, with some states making critical investments, particularly in the 2013 year as effects of the recession eased. Federal grants spurred many states to improve the infrastructure that supports their pre-K and child care programs, and Mississippi launched a pre-K program in 2013.

Science continues to show us the critical importance of the early years–birth through age 8–in helping children develop the thinking skills and attributes they need to succeed. And yet the past five years have been marked by vacillating funding and few signs that high-quality learning experiences are becoming available to more children. This should be alarming to anyone who is concerned about the state of early education in this country.

The report, available here and made possible by the Alliance for Early Success, was written by Lisa Guernsey, Laura Bornfreund, Clare McCann, and Conor Williams of the Early Education Initiative in the Education Policy Program at New America.