by Joe Sullivan
While it dollops out money for college scholarships, the lottery approved by the state Legislature last week fails to address the state's most glaring educational deficiency.
Failure to allocate any lottery money to pre-school programs flies in the face of study after study showing that at-risk pre-K students have the most to gain from educational assistance—both for themselves and for society.
The committee-approved lottery bill before the House last week would have allowed up to $50 million for pre-schools, but it got preempted by a floor amendment broadening eligibility for college scholarships. The Senate then adopted the House-passed bill that commits all $175 million in projected lottery proceeds during its first year of operation to scholarships. Subject to final enactment, the lottery is due to make its debut early next year, and the first round of scholarships would go to next year's high school graduates. This year's high school graduates who maintain a 3.0 grade-point average as college freshmen could also qualify.
Granted, the constitutional amendment authorizing a lottery that Tennessee voters approved last fall made college scholarships the top priority. But it also allowed for funding of pre-school programs and K-12 construction projects. Top state officials, including Gov. Phil Bredesen and the executive director of the state board of education, Cliff Wood, favored a pre-school allocation, and with good reason.
Studies such as a landmark one by Rand show that at-risk four-year-olds in programs that emphasize social skills as well as educational development get lasting benefits in terms of school performance. Conversely, remedial programs for children who have already entered schools tend to have only temporary benefits.
These studies are backed up by the state's experience with the very limited pilot program that's already underway. According to Wood, the 3,000 youngsters who've been in that program since 1998 have higher average TCAP scores in first and second grade than the school population as a whole.
The trouble is that there are 40,000 at-risk four-year-olds in the state, as measured by their eligibility for the federal free and reduced-cost meal program. Some 16,000 of them are enrolled in the federal Head Start program, but according to Wood there's no prospect for its expansion in the foreseeable future. So that leaves 20,000 kids who're going without, many of whom are destined for school failure.
At $5,000 per student in a school-administered program with certified teachers, a $50 million lottery allocation could have at least covered half of them. But that money has now been claimed to provide $3,000-a-year college scholarship for Tennessee high school graduates with at least a 3.0 average or an ACT score of at least 19. The House floor amendment that snatched the money away from pre-school was to substitute the or for and, which means that either lower-performing or lower-aptitude students get rewarded with scholarships.
Ironically, the primary impetus for the change came from the House's black caucus. At the risk of sounding racist, the irony is that minorities would be among the biggest beneficiaries of a pre-school program.
Why can't the pre-school program be funded from other sources, you say, and let the lottery be what it was advertised to be by way of a well-to-do parents tuition relief act? The answer is because no other funds are available. When former Gov. Sundquist first proposed a $100 million-a-year early-education program in 1999, the House quickly blessed it 99-0 but never came through with any money for it. And the state's fiscal situation has only deteriorated since then, with little prospect of any improvement anytime soon.
Nor, unfortunately, are the prospects very good that lottery proceeds will grow sufficiently in the years ahead to cover pre-school in addition to the newly-established scholarship regimen. These proceeds are projected to increase over time to the $250 million to $300 million range. But scholarship costs are also projected to grow to $280 million before leveling off after four years.
Perhaps the best hope for restoring pre-school funding is to base scholarship eligibility strictly on a 3.0 high school average. That's the standard for Georgia's HOPE scholarships, which were heralded as the model for Tennessee's program. According to cost estimates prepared by the Tennessee Higher Education Commission, the cost of such a program would level off at $222 million after four years. That would leave $28 million to as much as $78 million for pre-school.
It's much easier for the Lord to giveth scholarships than for the Lord to take them away. But we resonate with House Republican leader Tre Hargett when he says, "There's got to be room for pre-school and a responsible scholarship program. Hopefully, we'll come to our senses."
May 29, 2003 * Vol. 13, No. 22
© 2003 Metro Pulse
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