Rhode Island Department of Human Services Director Courtney Hawkins made pizza last week.
This wasn’t edible pizza, although it did look tempting, and Hawkins did more supervising that making.
“How about the triangle?” she asked of the 5-year-old who was thrilled to be the center of attention.
Hawkins didn’t point to or touch the plastic triangle among the dough cutters scattered on the table. The girl, who attends Child Inc. off Draper Avenue in Warwick, quickly selected the triangle, stuffing it with red Play-Doh.
From the opposite end of the table, Rep. Joseph Solomon, like Hawkins, was sitting in a little kid’s seat. The boy next to him was anxious to show that he, too, knows his shapes. There was a bit of competition going on when it came to making Play-Doh pizza.
Hawkins and Solomon were visiting the Head Start center to make the point there needs to be more seats for Pre-K students – and if the General Assembly was to finance Governor Gina Raimondo’s plan for universal Pre-K, Rhode Island would not only see a dramatic improvement in elementary school reading and math scores, but long range Rhode Island would have a better workforce and would see a reduction in poverty and crime.
Solomon is an advocate of universal Pre-K.
Hawkins appreciates the value of Pre-K. She’s seen it with her own daughter.
“She’s going to go to kindergarten next year and she has had four years of education already, and the only reason she’s had that is because I can pay for it. So, when I think about issues of education and equality and some of the poor outcomes for folks we’re trying to mitigate in the later years, investments in early education, to me, I don’t think there’s a better dollar to be spent,” she said in an interview.
Even without consideration of a state-mandated program, there are fewer seats than openings for Head Start. Under the program 54 Warwick kids are in the program and 141 were waitlisted this year. In Cranston the numbers are 72 and 147, and in Johnston it’s 18 to 43 waitlisted.
The gap threatens to be even greater if the state doesn’t step in to fund the $5.75 million federal Preschool Development Grant (PDG) that is expiring. Those funds account for 1,080 seats. Under the governor’s plan, an additional $4.25 million is needed for Phase 1 and 540 more Pre-K seats. Under Phase 2 of the program, 5,380 more seats would be added for a total of 7,000 over the next four years. That would account for about 70 percent of the state’s 4-year-old children.
Hawkins notes that the governor has set a goal to double third grade reading proficiency by 2025.
“Third-grade reading, interestingly enough, is one of the biggest predictors of all the good things we want from people and all the negative things we don’t want from people – incarceration or college attainment,” Hawkins said. “The research shows that high-quality Pre-K, in particular, is where you get the best return on investment.”
It’s not just a matter of putting 4-year-old kids in a classroom setting, either.
“[Raimondo] didn’t want to see us water it down and give two hours of Pre-K to everyone. The research shows that low-quality Pre-K is not effective,” Hawkins said.
That may all be good, but where is the money going to come from?
“The pushback is always, ‘We don’t have money for this.’ But this is the kind of thing where we believe investment now will save the state money in the future – most immediately on things like special-ed costs and some of those costs per students that don’t have these experiences, but then in later years thinking about having trained workers,” Hawkins said.
She added, “I recognize that it’s hard to make that connection for people, that somebody’s outcomes when they’re 24 are going to be dictated from experience when they’re 4. But the reality is that the science has gotten really good. Eighty percent of your brain develops before you’re 5, and we’re making almost no impact and investment in peoples’ education during that period.”
Hawkins said the legislature has been very positive about wanting to maintain what the state has and she is hopeful they are willing to take the next step in expansion.
“The reality is that the number of kids and families in Rhode Island that live in poverty hasn’t changed in decades, and so we have to do something different if we’re going to change outcomes for these folks,” she said.
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JohnStark
Two points here. First, Ms. Hawkins is the Director for the Department of Human Services for the State of Rhode Island. This should not be confused with the Executive Office of Health and Human Services or the Department of Children, Youth, and Families. Nor should it be confused with the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, the Office of the Child Advocate, or the Office for Child Support. The point is that every agency short of the National Guard and Underwater Demolition is already involved with poverty prevention. In the last ten years, RI taxpayers have spent over $32 billion-with-a-B dollars on such efforts. I'll let Ms. Hawkins speak to the results: "...the number of kids and families in Rhode Island that live in poverty hasn’t changed in decades." But now we're supposed to believe that One More Program is going to make a difference? Ms. Hawkins might as well say: "No, this time we really mean it." Cynics would call all these offices and agencies Poverty Perpetuation Programs.
Second, Ms. Hawkins repeatedly invokes "the research...", knowing full well that the average person has neither the time nor inclination to challenge her. So she won't tell you that "the research" is, at best, inconclusive in pointing to measurable outcomes from Pre-K programs. And any positive outcomes tend to wash out by second or third grade when compared with matched children who did not attend Pre-K.. Long term positive outcomes are completely absent when studies control for poverty, parental income, and parental education. What the research DOES say is that kids from a two-parent family do better academically, emotionally, and socially than kids from other arrangements. And kids born to a married couple do better in all categories than kids born out of wedlock, though nobody is supposed to mention it. Much like all-day kindergarten and Head Start, which were advertised as educational panaceas but have never yielded the desired outcomes (other than give mom some free time), pre-K is another feel-good plan endorsed by the very same people who have already treated us to a very expensive and profoundly failed web of state government.
Wednesday, May 8, 2019 Report this
wwkvoter
You dont mention your research either. But here's a thought - you go get every 3-5 year old kid a matched set of two married parents who have high income and education, and we'll stop looking at pre-k. SMH
Thursday, May 9, 2019 Report this
JohnStark
wwkvoter: the science of this not withstanding, it's unlikely that I could find a match for all those kids. In the interim, here are the cold, hard, facts: Kids living in poverty who go to Pre-K are highly unlikely to show any measurable gains, after 2nd grade, over kids living in poverty who do NOT go to Pre-K, when controlled for parental involvement, education level, and income. Space precludes me from citations, but you can Google it. And all the state Offices, Agencies, Departments, Commissions, etc. will not refute the essential reality that kids who are the product of single parent dependence achieve at a profoundly lower level than children who come from married fathers and mothers. Ms. Hawkins would contribute to public service by saying so , though it might mean a reduction in jobs associated with the Poverty Industry, which is why you won't hear about it.
Friday, May 10, 2019 Report this