Arkansas Preschools High On Quality, Not Quantity
By: Import User
Updated: January 7, 2009
Arkansas state-run preschool programs scored
very well in a national survey for quality, but lagged in access
for children and funding.
The National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers
University performed the review. It said Arkansass state-funded
quality standards are the best in the country because it scored
high marks on all ten testing criteria. Two other states met nine
of the ten criteria.
At the same time, only six percent of Arkansas Four-year-olds
are in preschool and state funding has been limited to 2,900
dollars per child.
Arkansas legislators have already laid the foundation to improve
in those areas, though. In February, they passed additional funding
that would nearly double the per-child expenditure to 4,300
dollars while adding seven thousand new students to the enrollment.
