The legislature's changes to "More at Four" will cause irreparable damage to the highly regarded pre-kindergarten program and shut out thousands of low-income children, a state education administrator testified Wednesday in court.
Charging families a co-payment for the program would be a barrier for poor families and the budget specifies that at-risk children can make up no more than 20 percent of those served, testified John Pruette, executive director of the state's Office of Early Learning.
More at Four serves about 31,000 at-risk children now. But, combined with federal money, the free pre-kindergarten reaches about 40,000 across the state, he said. The legislature mandated a co-payment in the future - 10 percent of gross family income for a family of three.
"That obstacle has been put squarely in front of those families," he said.
The testimony came in Wake County Superior Court, where Judge Howard Manning Jr. is holding a hearing on whether state budget cuts endanger children's constitutional right to a sound basic education under the landmark Leandro school quality case.
The plaintiffs in the long-running case - five poor school districts - claim that the changes and cuts by the legislature will undo the educational progress made in the state since the initial Supreme Court ruling in Leandro in 1997.
Funding cut 20 percent
More at Four is a key issue in the hearing. Many studies have shown that children who participate have better language and math skills and score better on tests in the early grades. The research also shows that the program has helped lower the achievement gap.
The recently enacted state budget cuts the program's funding by 20 percent and moves it to the state's Department of Health and Human Services' Division of Child Development. There, it is expected to function more as a child care subsidy program for working families as opposed to an educational program for poor children with nowhere else to turn for a preschool opportunity.
Pruette predicted public schools would drop the program because of insufficient funds. He said the state's child development division won't be able to coordinate teacher licensing, curriculum standards and educational services.
"I'm afraid their role may be to preside over the carcass of pre-kindergarten in North Carolina," Pruette testified.
He was one of several education officials to testify about budget cuts at the hearing, which continues today.
Frank Richard Lopes, Jr., associate superintendent for Cumberland County schools, described how the cuts would hit in his system, one of the plaintiff districts in the case. He said the Fayetteville district will eliminate 379 positions, including teachers, teacher assistants, administrators and guidance counselors.
Effect on Race to Top
The state education department's chief academic officer, Rebecca Garland, testified that budget cuts will reduce the number of school district administrators who must oversee big changes coming to curriculum, teacher evaluations and other reforms that have grown out of the state's Race to the Top initiative.
North Carolina won a $400 million Race to the Top grant from the federal government for four years. The grant money is earmarked for innovations and cannot be used to cover a loss in operating expenses. The funds will be used for technology, teacher and principal training and the implementation of common curriculum standards being adopted by many states.
Garland also said fewer assistant principals could lead to safety issues in schools, while overburdening principals.
"We are certainly concerned in general about the number of adults in a building," she said, pointing out that many high schools have 2,000 students.
Education spending was a major sticking point in deliberations over the $19.7 billion Republican-authored budget. Republican legislators argued that their budget was responsible and focused resources on priorities such as lengthening the school calendar by five days and adding 1,100 teachers to lower class size in early grades.
The bill was vetoed by Gov. Bev Perdue and then overridden by the Republican majority, with key support from five Democrats in the House.
Blame on both parties
There's plenty of blame to go around, said John Dornan, a senior fellow with the Public School Forum of North Carolina, who has done research on the state's school funding. The budget drops nearly every program designed to improve teachers and principals and recruit talented people to the professions, he said.
"This dismantling process is very bipartisan," he said.
Last year, he said, Democrats eliminated 200 literacy coaches in low-performing schools. Now, Republicans are doing away with teacher training, mentoring for young teachers and a scholarship program to entice top students to become teachers after college.
North Carolina had been making modest progress on student achievement until three straight years of cuts, Dornan said.
"The last three years I think we have moved back more than a decade," he said.
Despite all the budget talk, Manning reminded the full courtroom that the case is about school quality, not money.
The judge annually monitors test scores, county by county, he said, to determine "who's been naughty and who's been nice."
He said it's unacceptable that nearly 200,000 North Carolina third- through eighth-graders are not proficient in reading.
"What's not happening in the classroom is what this case is about," he said.
