A Preschool Problem

Posted on 07/27/2011 @ 10:24 AM

KiKi Bochi is an award-winning reporter and editor. Since the 1980s Bochi has covered school systems, politics, local government, family health and more. Most recently, she has written and edited for national Latino publications and parenting magazines.

The number of Latino children enrolled in preschool has declined. And through there doesn't seem to be an easy explanation as to why, KiKi Bochi discusses what issues could be at play and why preschool is a potential boon to young children from Spanish-speaking homes.

There is no simple explanation as to why, after decades of growth, the percentage of Latino children attending preschool has fallen as much as 10 percent in recent years. But it is a phenomenon that should cause plenty of people to sit up and pay attention.

The enrollment of Latino children, who already participated in preschool at rates lower than non-Hispanic whites and blacks, dipped nationally from 53 percent to 48 percent between 2005 and 2009, according to researchers from the University of California, Berkeley. The drop is particularly noteworthy because it represents a sudden reversal of among Latino youngsters, whose participation in preschool had more than doubled between 1991, when about a fourth were enrolled, and 2005.

The numbers are significant, as well, because of what they portend. Because attending quality preschools is associated with greater success in school, and by extension employment, the declining proportion could serve to widen the achievement gap between Latino children and non-Hispanic whites.

“We know that quality preschool lifts the early literacy and social skills of Latino children, especially those from Spanish-speaking homes,” says Bruce Fuller, study co-author and a UC Berkeley professor of education and public policy. “So, as fewer Latino kids benefit from preschool, they will experience less success as they move through school.”

The implications are huge, of course. The Latino population is expected to nearly triple by 2050 from 47 million today to 133 million, when Latinos will account for almost one in three U.S. residents, according to Census projections. And it is a population that is disproportionately young. Nationwide, one in five pupils in school today comes from a Hispanic background. Among children in kindergarten, the figure is one in four. If Latinos continue to lag in access to quality early childhood programs, they are less likely to catch up academically and face dire prospects for employment as adults.2028By virtue of the sheer numbers of Latino children, the impact on everything from the country’s economy to public health to social institutions would be felt by all.

The UC Berkeley researchers have put forward several factors that may have caused the drop in preschool enrollment among Latinos, and all of them are quite plausible. Among them: the explosive growth of the Latino population has outpaced the increase in subsidized slots available at preschools, making access more difficult. In fact, Head Start funding has been cut at the same time that many states, such as Florida and California, have cut back on their support for preschool programs. Both are among states that offer only three hours daily of pre-kindergarten, which can be insufficient for working parents who may need childcare for 10 hours a day. As a result, parents either don’t work, or they leave their children with friends or family members rather than sending them to preschool.

Another factor cited by the study authors is the state of the economy. Unemployment among Latinas nearly doubled during the study period, largely a result of the Great Recession. The jobless rate rose from 6.3 percent to 10.6 percent between 2005 and 2009 for Latina women 20 and older, with rates ranging even higher for the less educated. Hispanic moms were either less able to afford preschool, or felt that it wasn't needed because they could care for their children themselves at no cost.

It all seems to make a great deal of sense, until one considers the fact that the same decline in preschool enrollment was not reflected in other groups during the same time period, even though all faced the same reduction in slots and economic difficulties. By 2009, almost 70 percent of white 4-year-olds were enrolled in preschool, according to the study. The share of African American 4-year-olds attending preschool essentially equaled that of whites for the first time in 2005, and black enrollment showed no sign of weakening during the recession, the study said.

So what additional factor is likely to have been at play among Latinos?

For one, Latino parents, who in past surveys have been shown to place a high premium on education, may perceive that the programs don’t necessarily serve their children’s needs. The UC Berkeley investigation found that most preschools do not focus on boosting children’s cognitive growth, language and pre-literacy skills, especially preschools that serve children of immigrant parents.

“Disparities in preschool quality, hampering the developmental potential of Latino children, come to exacerbate learning gaps relative to middle-class white peers, even before these youngsters start school,” Fuller says.

Probably even more significant, however, was the rising tide of anti-immigrant sentiment in this country. Immigrant parents without authorization to work in the United States fear that having their children in preschool could draw the attention of authorities. States have also piled on many new application requirements, including numerous documents that families often don't have. To the parents, keeping children at home is not only easier, but safer – regardless of how it might affect their prospects for an education.

There can be little doubt that all these factors, combine to influence the decline of preschool enrolment among Latinos. But for Latino parents in particular, some clearly weigh more heavily than others. These are not factors that will affect Latinos in isolation; their long-term impact is likely to affect all segments.

Reyna Hernández, an early childhood education policy analyst for the Latino Policy Forum, which cooperated on the study with Berkley, says that policy makers and voters need to commit to preschool education.

“First, Latino families should be banging down the doors of politicians demanding that quality public early education is made a priority,” she told Extra, a bilingual newspaper in Chicago. “This isn’t just about academic success... Quality early childhood education improves outcomes in a wide range of things from future substance abuse, being less likely to go to jail, likelihood to graduate high school, to attend and graduate college, all of these different things later in life…

“Unless this changes, an increasing proportion of the workforce won’t have the basic literacy skills needed be productive in the work force.”

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