Print
Email Story
Legislatures big and small and legislators big and small have one thing in common: They like to make themselves look good at as cheap a price as possible.
In Washington and elsewhere, that translates into a willingness to authorize programs that all agree are necessary and beneficial, but a reluctance to pay for them.
There's nothing cheaper than to demand service without paying for it.
This always hurts, but it is particularly difficult when children's interests and education are at stake.
And so it is with prekindergarteners in many states, including Washington.
According to The Associated Press, states are cutting hundreds of millions of dollars from their prekindergarten budgets.
It undermines years of helping children -- particularly poor ones -- get ready for school.
More than a third of a billion dollars is being cut nationwide, despite a lot of lip service from lawmakers.
In Washington, for example, the Legislature recently expanded (in its usual hollow fashion) the state's prekindergarten program from 8,000 needy kids to more than 45,000 by 2018.
Then the legislature cut $1.6 million from the program last fiscal year and another $10.4 million this year.
It's stupefying to see how crafty our legislators have become. The current economic troubles didn't just burst upon the scene. Even as they were voting to expand prekindergarten education, lawmakers knew they couldn't pay for it.
Nationally, the worst isn't over. It's anticipated that more cuts will come when federal stimulus money dries up.
According to the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University, "Preschool-age children across the nation will feel a much bigger impact from the recession in 2010 and 2011 than in the past. ...
"We estimate that so far, $348 million in state funding has been cut from state-funded pre-K programs across those two years and that figure could well rise," said Institute co-director Steve Barnett.
He said $248.3 million was cut from 16 state prekindergarten initiatives in fiscal year 2010 alone, with another $99.8 million in funding cuts proposed in 2011. Barnett says if the pattern for 2010 is any indication, that figure could rise by year-end.
"Even as we move out of the Great Recession, state revenues will continue to lag the recovery. Our elected officials must prioritize public investments that are pro-growth -- as cuts will cost us and our children far more in the future than they save today," Barnett said.
He is right, of course.
Whether it's called lip service, cynicism, gulling the citizenry, flat-out political misrepresentation or worse, legislators must recognize their duty to solve problems, not shuffle them aside as the members posture to get re-elected, then duck the cameras when it's time to pay for the promises.
Modern studies show that money spent on preventive and educational programs is far more effective than what's spent to clean up after social failures.
It's strange that most of the people running for office this year -- including here in the Tri-Cities -- campaign on cleaning up waste in government and cutting taxes.
Few have anything positive to say on what they'd like to do for the youngsters.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This editorial on budget cuts for prekindergarten education programs inadvertently repeated an error that appeared in an Associated Press article on the subject.
The Legislature cut the state’s Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program by $193,000 this year. The larger figure cited in the article and editorial was proposed by Gov. Chris Gregoire but never enacted.
