Pre-k and the states

Pre-K Now is a public education and advocacy organization originally created as a funding strategy of the Pew Charitable Trusts and a project of the Institute for Educational Leadership. They describe their mission and goal:

Our mission is to collaborate with advocates and policymakers to lead a movement for high-quality, voluntary pre-kindergarten for all three- and four-year-olds. The goal of Pre-K Now is to advance high-quality pre-kindergarten programs for all children.

Pre-K Now publishes a resource center on its web site offering state profiles and their efforts in pre-k; availability, political, quality and climate mappings of progress; and recommended resources, both digital and traditional.

Two Pre-K Now publications of interest are also available as downloads:

Funding the Future: States' Approaches to Pre-K Finance - the press release describes as examining "the range of financial approaches states employ, how effective they have been in raising funds for high-quality programs, how sustainable those sources of funding are, and how they can be increased to improve the quality of and expand access to pre-k." 20p., pdf, 424 KB.

Pre-K and Politics 2005 - an analysis of the past year in the pre-kindergarten movement, reporting the bold approaches of commitment to pre-k programs while also examining the "states that have fallen behind the pack on pre-k." According to the press release, the annual identifies "ten essential conditions that comprise a political barometer and are associated with states that are serious about expanding pre-k to all children." 20p., pdf, 544 KB.

See related FR post, Challenges to universal pre-K.