NC will get $56 million for early learning. But Cooper says the state can do more.
North Carolina will receive $56 million in new federal grants over the next seven years to help early childhood programs in the state, including money to train childcare teachers and to provide health services to young children.
Gov. Roy Cooper announced the new grants Thursday, which he called one of the state’s largest infusions of new dollars in North Carolina’s early childhood system. Cooper made the announcement at Bright Beginnings Child Development Center as part of an effort to promote expansion of Pre-K access for the state’s children..
“The science is just overwhelming as to how much of a difference early childhood education makes in whether a child is going to succeed in school and in life,” Cooper said. “We’re working very hard to make sure we provide those investments so that our children can grow up better educated and healthier and more prosperous.”
The state is getting a $40.2 million Preschool Development Grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Cooper’s office said the grant will fund:
▪ Professional development and coaching to early childhood teachers.
▪ Expand access to Family Connects, a nurse home visiting program for parents of newborns.
▪ Support families as their children transition into kindergarten
▪ Expands access to high-quality child care for infants and toddlers.
North Carolina is also getting a $16 million grant from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Cooper’s office said the grant will improve how children receive services by coordinating healthcare and other sectors that support children, such as schools, food, and housing.
Support for expanding NC Pre-K
The new funding comes at a time when multiple studies have pointed to the benefits of getting children into Pre-K programs. Most recently, an independent consultant working on the Leandro school funding lawsuit recommended an additional $1.2 billion in state funding for early childhood education programs.
NC Pre-K, the state’s program for at-risk 4-year-olds, serves 29,791 students, roughly 47% of the state’s eligible children. Multiple groups, including prominent state business leaders, have called on lawmakers to sharply increase pre-kindergarten enrollment so that at least 75 percent of at-risk children are being served.
In 2018, state lawmakers included money in the budget to serve an additional 3,000 children through 2021. Cooper, a Democrat, complained Thursday that the Republican-led General Assembly had diverted $50 million in federal early childhood funding to use elsewhere in the state budget.
Cooper met with Bright Beginning’s Pre-K teachers to hear their concerns and why they feel it’s important for children to enroll in Pre-K.
Danielle Fitzgerald, an NC-Pre K teacher, said she’s accumulated more than $100,000 in student loan debt that she can’t pay off. She said a big problem is that they get paid less than K-12 teachers.
“We don’t make the same as public school teachers make,” Fitzgerald said. “There’s a little bit of why because we have licenses too.”
Shirley Herndon, the director and co-owner of Bright Beginnings, said she’d love to pay her teachers more. But Herndon said she also doesn’t want to make it too expensive for parents to send their children to the program.
Cooper said he’s fighting to get supplemental pay for Pre-K teachers.
But Cooper also said that one way to help financially would be to expand Medicaid because one in five early childhood educators don’t have health insurance. One of the reasons that Cooper vetoed the state budget is lawmakers didn’t expand Medicaid funding..
“To be able to get health insurance to our early childhood educators would be really important, would help take some financial burden,” Cooper said. “If you’re not covered with health insurance, you go to the doctor a few times, it’s rough.”
This story was originally published January 9, 2020 at 5:36 PM.
