Early Childhood Programs May Suffer State’s Inability to Pay Ed Bills (IL)

July 19, 2010

Supporters of early childhood education worry about the impact of cuts Gov. Pat Quinn has announced to education.

Though preschool and early learning programs are supposed to receive the same $342 million they did last year, many of them haven’t yet been paid for last year and had to dip into reserves to keep going. That can’t continue indefinitely, said Claudia Quigg, executive director of Baby TALK, and many of those programs will have to shut down.

Macon-Piatt Regional Superintendent of Education Matt Snyder is planning a meeting with Quigg to discuss the budget, he said.

"We are in the process of reducing the number of employees we have at our alterna tive schools," Snyder said. "We’re still owed a little over $1 million from the state. They did get some money to us at the end of June that’s going to help us. We’re in the process of working with Baby TALK. We fronted them some money to get through last year and we’re still waiting to see what’s going to happen with them and we’re meeting with them at the end of the month."

The majority of the money the state owes to school districts is funding for transportation, special education and early childhood programs, said Mount Zion Superintendent Darbe Brinkoetter.

According to National Institute for Early Education Research, children who attend state-funded prekindergarten programs experience a 31 percent growth in vocabulary skills, a 44 percent growth in early math skills and an 85 percent increase in print awareness.

In 2006, Illinois legislators passed an initiative, Preschool for All, which made the state a national leader in providing free early childhood education, but that was before the current budget crisis really took hold.

"That gaping budget hole means we still have come no closer to protecting children from even further harm, despite two years of painful cuts in critical programs and long delays in paying important state bills," said Kathy Ryg, president of Voices for Illinois Children.