Study finds pre-k availability lacking across the US, as Maryland Districts hope Blueprint can reverse the trend

MARYLAND – the National Institute of Early Education Research released its annual Pre-K education report, finding slow gains in spending and quality standards remain. The report found that after adjusting for inflation, public spending on pre-K has not changed in two decades. Despite lackluster national progress, the report dives into some hopeful updates in state commitments to early childhood education programs.

“Right now most children don’t have access to these programs or programs like them and change over the last 20 years has been slow and uneven,” said NIEER Founder and Senior Co-director Steve Barnett.

The Maryland State Education Association says that disparity in access comes with real consequences.

“Kids, if they’ve been in a pre-K setting, they can socialize, kids learn, children learn through, apply, that’s the first way that we start to learn,” said MSEA President Cheryl Bost adding “When they don’t have that environment, they’re really set back.”

But the impacts aren’t just being felt by our kids.

Salisbury Area Chamber of Commerce President Bill Chambers says- a lack of pre-k options is stopping many parents from coming back to work.

‘I think we need to start treating pre-K and childcare as essential infrastructure,” Chamber said adding “Let’s treat pre-K and early childhood development the same way we would treat funding roads, and fiber optic cables because the long-term benefits produce more productivity and a much more inclusive post-pandemic economy.”

Cheryl Boast of the MSEA says that reality is set to change, with the Maryland Blue Print for Change bringing in universal Pre-K she hopes that education can be shifted from an expensive luxury, to a right parents can rely on.

“By expanding pre-K access and really focusing on the importance of pre-K opportunities, we are helping to close that opportunity gap that we’ve seen so long in our school systems,” she said.

Chambers tells 47ABC he also wants an increased push for the private sector to get into the Pre-K field, saying the 5,000 grant currently on the table from the state is not good enough to get businesses interested.