An expansion of preschool could accommodate an additional 17,000 low-income 4-year-olds within five years, partly through state reimbursements to church-run and private early childhood programs, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine said Thursday.
The state would pay about $75 million more a year to expand Head Start and other pre-kindergarten programs that now cost the state about $50 million annually.
Kaine's program, which he calls "Start Strong," would expand enrollment by broadening eligibility from children of families with annual incomes of $26,845 or less to include the working poor, with incomes of up to $38,203 a year.
Enrollment for children and participation in the program by either public, nonprofit, religious or private child-care providers would be voluntary, Kaine said.
Providers, whether public schools, churches or day care provided either in private businesses or in people's homes, would have to meet instructional quality standards that have not yet been developed, he said.
"The experience of a year of research and review of other states and international models has convinced us to take advantage of the network we already have rather than scrap it and start from scratch," Kaine told reporters after briefing a lunch crowd of educators, lobbyists and business leaders who filled a hotel ballroom.
The state will reimburse religious and private firms for every pupil who is part of the state-backed program. Kaine dismissed any similarity to the contentious idea of tax-supported "vouchers" that defray the education costs for parents who prefer private schools to public ones for their children.
"I am a big fan of K-12 education publicly funded and not vouchers or tuition tax credits," Kaine said. But to expand preschool using only public schools, the cost would run into the hundreds of millions of dollars, a nonstarter with the state facing a $300 million budget shortfall.
"I think that just as in college education there is a very diverse network of public and private institutions and the private institutions receive public support from TAG (tuition assistance) grants that support kids that go to in-state private schools," he said. "The expansion of this diverse network for pre-K education makes a lot of sense but it doesn't affect what I think is the appropriate organizational model for K-12."
Reaction from legislative Republicans was guarded.
G. Paul Nardo, the top aide to House Speaker William J. Howell, said it was too early and there were too few details available to fairly judge it.
"It's so scaled back. It's a shadow of itself," Nardo said. "It's clear he was listening to us."
As a candidate two years ago, Kaine envisioned a universal pre-kindergarten initiative that would have entitled every Virginia 4-year-old to free public preschool, regardless of whether the child's family is wealthy or impoverished.
Full text available at the Washington Examiner
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