New Pre-K Classes Funded
Counties Scramble for Kids Free Classes Will Help Children Who Are Not in Other Programs
Ann Doss Helms, Charlotte Observer
November 5, 2002

Hundreds of Charlotte-area 4-year-olds are eligible for free public pre-kindergarten - if officials can find them.

In counties across North Carolina, educators and children's advocates are recruiting children who most need help before they start kindergarten - low-income children who aren't in preschool or child care. Children who qualify will spend the rest of the school year in state-funded "More at Four" classes building skills for school success, at no cost to their parents.

It's part of a push to fight academic achievement gaps by giving children a boost before they fall behind. This summer, N.C. Gov. Mike Easley expanded More at Four by offering every N.C. county money to help the neediest preschoolers - but only if they could whip together a plan and find extra money in a tight budget year.

"We had to look at it long and hard," said Mary Ann Rasberry, executive director of the Union County Partnership for Children, who joked that her crew launched the effort "after you get through scratching your head and wondering where your sanity went."

"It's an opportunity we couldn't let go," she added seriously. "I keep telling myself it's for the children."

More at Four, modeled on Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools' Bright Beginnings pre-kindergarten, is a crash course in school readiness. Children who would be likely to show up for kindergarten unfamiliar with classroom routines and unready to learn their letters and numbers are immersed in reading, singing and art projects - the kind of activities children with more advantages often take for granted.

Mecklenburg's task is by far the largest in the state. Today it has 54 More at Four students in three classrooms. By January, plans call for 33 new classes in child-care centers across the county, with almost 600 new children joining the program. In addition, almost 3,000 4-year-olds take part in Bright Beginnings, a separate but similar program.

Cumberland and Guilford counties, the next largest participants, are slated to have about 400 More at Four students each.

The first round of new classes in Mecklenburg is set to open in two weeks. To prepare, volunteers are working phones, and police officers are knocking on doors in low-income neighborhoods, handing out fliers about the new pre-kindergarten option.

Similar scenes are playing out across the state. By definition, the children targeted for More at Four can be difficult to reach. They're the ones at home with parents, sitters or relatives. They're the ones whose families are struggling to get by and may not speak English well.

"The children we're recruiting are the most fragile of all," said Jane Meyer, executive director of Smart Start of Mecklenburg County.

More at Four is the latest twist in North Carolina 's decade-long quest to start educating children before they report for their first day of school. Smart Start, the signature program of former Gov. Jim Hunt, has pumped millions of dollars into a range of early childhood programs, including child-care subsidies and efforts to improve education at child-care centers.

Gov. Mike Easley introduced More at Four last year, with a $6.5 million budget and just over 1,600 children in 34 counties, including Mecklenburg , Gaston and Catawba. In July 2002, as legislators haggled over a budget, Easley issued an executive order to expand More at Four to 6,000 more children statewide, with $28 million to pay for it.

That was a lot of money in a year when many agencies were seeing cuts - but there was a catch. The state was offering about $3,500 per child, about half the estimated cost for the school year. Local school systems, Smart Start partnerships and other contributors had to come up with the other half - and a plan to find and teach the children.

More at Four classes can be held in public schools or child-care programs, as long as they meet state standards for class size, curriculum and teacher education.

In Mecklenburg County , the public school system started working with child-care centers to offer pre-kindergarten in 1999, when CMS expanded its Bright Beginnings classes into 10 centers. Officials built on that partnership to launch the More at Four expansion.

Mecklenburg will pull money from several sources, including CMS, which budgeted $200,000 for More at Four; Smart Start; and a foundation grant that is still in the works. The state budget calls for almost $2.4 million for More at Four in Mecklenburg ; local officials say they're sure they can provide the match. The state money comes only when classes are filled with children.

Mecklenburg officials started recruiting children by checking waiting lists for Head Start and subsidized child care. The Department of Social Services provided names of families who might have eligible children.

Few of the participating child-care centers have teachers with the early childhood licensing to meet state standards, so CMS is scanning the ranks of its applicants for new hires.

Fifteen classes in Mecklenburg County are scheduled to open Nov. 18, and 18 more in January.

Carolyn Cobb, state More at Four director, says it's too early to have any kind of tally, but she hopes all 6,000 new 4-year-olds are in classes by the time schools reopen after the holiday break.

"The need is there," said Karen Campbell of the Rowan Partnership for Children. "It's a challenge, but it's a good opportunity."