Feature Story

May 20, 2007

Recommendations to Support High-quality Early Education Programs Through Reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act

From Center for Law and Social Policy:

While states and local communities recognize the importance of investments in early education, limited funding has constrained policymakers' ability to create and expand programs that meet young children's needs from birth through school entry.

Title I funds are quite flexible; they can be used to create a new early education program or to expand or improve the quality of an existing one.

Less than 20 percent of all school districts that receive Title I funds choose to use these funds for early education; of those, most use less than 10 percent of their total Title I funds for this purpose. Districts do not report their Title I expenditures on early education to the U.S. Department of Education (ED); and the National Center for Education Statistics, which provides annual reports on children in early education, does not report data by funding stream.

CLASP research found that many local school districts are cutting or reducing their investments in early childhood programs---or foresee doing so in the future---because they have fewer resources than in previous years.

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