The Preschool Wars

"The Preschool Wars" was the eye-catching title of an article in Time (October 11, 2011).  The article related...

"For the first two years of the recession, state governments tried to leave preschool budgets intact....  But total state spending on pre-K fell in the 2009-10 school year, the first decrease in a decade.  The cuts are particularly troubling considering that the national poverty rate increased last year to 15%, a 52-year high.  The rate is even higher among children:  more than 1 in 5 now live below the poverty line.  Since 2010, Arizona has cuts its entire pre-K program, and Iowa narrowly averted a total wipeout this summer.

"Of all the state battles currently raging over pre-K funding, none is fiercer than the one in North Carolina, which is considered a national leader in preschool reform and effectiveness and which has some 13,500 kids on a waitlist to get into [pre-K] classrooms....  The budget battle began in June when the general assembly slashed $32 million — a cut of 20% — from the state's preschool program for at-risk 4-year-olds.   Governor Beverly Perdue... issued the first budget veto in state history....  A few days later, the legislature overrode her veto.  Then the battle shifted to the courts as a handful of low-income school districts sued the state, claiming the budget cuts denied children their constitutional rights.  Wake County Superior Court Judge Howard Manning agreed with the districts, ruling in July that the state cannot put up any barriers that prevent eligible at-risk children from enrolling in preschool...

"The officials who run the state's pre-K program are hoping they can get more kids into classrooms in January.  They aren't sure yet where the money will come from....  Meanwhile, legislators are trying to overturn Manning's ruling....  Under pressure from the general assembly, the North Carolina attorney general filed a notice of appeal, setting the stage for a showdown before the state's supreme court."

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