Educational interventions well before adulthood — even as early as preschool — are an important component of comprehensive workforce development.1 Preschool education lays a foundation for lifelong learning and skill development, and early exposure to education has been linked to higher educational and workforce outcomes later in life, including higher test scores, higher educational attainment and higher adult earnings.2 But nationwide, only about a quarter of children under 5 years old (24.9 percent) are enrolled in preschool, and this statistic drops to one in five (19.9 percent) for children below the federal poverty level (FPL).3 As a result, 4.3 million 3- and 4-year-olds in the U.S. may be missing out on the long-term benefits of preschool — and over 400,000 of them reside in the Fifth Federal Reserve District.4 With these numbers in mind, this issue of 5th District Footprint asks: How does preschool enrollment compare for children above and below the FPL in Fifth District counties?
For the purposes of this publication, preschool enrollment rates are calculated by dividing the number of preschool enrollees by the number of children under 5 years old. Since preschool enrollment typically starts at age 3 or 4, this may underrepresent enrollment rates.5 However, it is necessary to use this methodology because the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey does not provide income estimates for the population ages 3 and 4 — only for the total population under 5 years old.
Along with private preschool options, federal, state and local governments administer a number of preschool and early learning programs to help individuals capitalize on the benefits of early childhood education. These programs seek to address factors that may influence parental decisions about preschool and early learning, including physical and cognitive development, cost, location and program options.
The most ubiquitous of these public programs is Head Start, which provides federal grant funding, technical assistance and oversight to local agencies that administer early learning programs for low-income children ages 3 through 5.6 There are more than 1,600 local Head Start programs nationwide, although access is limited by a combination of insufficient funding, challenges in the enrollment process and a lack of parental awareness about the programs. Across the country, just 31 percent of Head Start eligible 3- and 4-year-olds enrolled in 2017.7
Two other major sources of funding for early childhood education serving low-income children are the Child Care and Development Block Grant program (CCDBG) and the Preschool Development Grant Birth through Five program (PDG B-5). CCDBG is a federal block grant program that was funded at $5.28 billion in fiscal year 2019, and PDG B-5 is a $250 million competitive federal program that awarded grants to 46 states and territories in the 2019 funding cycle.8 In the Fifth District, the District of Columbia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia received PDG B-5 grants ranging from $3.4 million (South Carolina) to $10.6 million (District of Columbia and Maryland).9 West Virginia was the only Fifth District state not to receive PDG B-5 grant funding.
At 24.2 percent, preschool enrollment in the Fifth District as a whole is on par with the national enrollment rate. State enrollment rates in the Fifth District range from 21.6 percent in West Virginia to 33.7 percent in the District of Columbia, even though West Virginia and the District of Columbia both have universal preschool programs.10 Enrollment in the Fifth District is lowest for children in South Carolina living below the FPL at 16.8 percent. Meanwhile, children in the District of Columbia living above the FPL have the highest enrollment rate at 34.3 percent.
All Fifth District states and the District of Columbia have higher enrollment rates for children above the FPL than below. However, as illustrated in the map below, that is not necessarily the case within individual counties. Of the 318 Fifth District counties for which data are represented, 94 (29.6 percent) have a higher preschool enrollment rate for children below the FPL than above.11 The remaining 224 counties (70.4 percent) have higher enrollment rates for children above the FPL.
Although data for Falls Church, Virginia, are excluded from the map because of the city’s relatively small population of low-income children under 5 years old, it is the Fifth District locality with the highest overall preschool enrollment rate at 57.6 percent.12 Rural Bamberg County, South Carolina, has the greatest enrollment disparity between children above and below the FPL. While 38.5 percent of children above the FPL are enrolled in preschool, just 2.4 percent of children below the FPL are enrolled.
The National Institute for Early Education Research estimates that at current rates of increase in preschool enrollment, it could take nearly a century for half of eligible 3-year-olds in the U.S. to be enrolled in public preschool.13 Furthermore, research indicates that preschool teachers are compensated less than primary school teachers, which may negatively impact classroom quality, and state spending per child is generally trending downward.14 Given the current state of preschool enrollment and funding, work remains to be done to ensure that children of all income levels in the Fifth District and the nation have access to early childhood education.
