A visit from the U.S. secretary of education brought some useful attention to pre-kindergarten education in Arkansas.
Education Secretary John B. King Jr. dropped in on an early childhood center in North Little Rock on Thursday, calling Arkansas' approach to early childhood education a "beacon."
The attention gave those involved in the effort the opportunity to make a highly visible pitch for additional funding for a 25-year-old pre-K program that hasn't seen a permanent funding increase from the state government since 1991.
Year after year, the challenge has been for administrators to stretch the dollars the program, known as Better Chance, to more children.
It so happens that the North Little Rock school King visited is one that also receives some federal aid for pre-K, as do others in a few Arkansas school districts.
The rest get by on what the state or private donors provide.
Advocates suggest the need for an infusion of maybe $20 million more than the program has gotten in the past.
Again, the state money committed to the program has been static since 1991, locked in at $105 million annually.
Bill Clinton was still governor when that figure was set.
Arkansas has known Govs. Jim Guy Tucker, Mike Huckabee, Mike Beebe and Asa Hutchinson in the intervening decades. They've come from both sides of the political aisle and, so far at least, none of their administrations made early childhood education enough of a priority to answer calls for more long-term funding.
There was some one-time money that has helped in recent years, but no permanent funding hike. At least, there has been none yet.
Gov. Hutchinson said last week that he's awaiting a financial report on Arkansas education before deciding whether to support an increase in preschool funding in the fiscal 2018 budget.
That report is critical to all of education funding.
Arkansas' established priority is funding for kindergarten through 12th grade education. That's part of the hard-won requirement that the public schools offer both an equitable and adequate education to all students.
Pre-K, although recognized as a key investment to prepare young children for school, isn't part of the guarantee that resulted from all those years of litigation over the state's public school funding formula.
Pre-K effectively falls into the budget priority list with all the rest of what the state funds -- other than K-12 education.
That means pre-K interests will face steep competition for the hearts and minds of not only the governor but also of state lawmakers. They may prefer to put money into higher education or even items like prison funding. Or they might choose instead to cut taxes rather than put money into anything else.
Pre-K needs all the attention it can get in that environment. Secretary King's visit put the issue in the spotlight last week.
The Better Chance program actually pays for about 24,000 of the 34,712 available pre-K slots in Arkansas, according to state officials.
The pre-K spending rate, on a per capita basis, reportedly ranks second in the South and fifth among all states.
While that's admirable, it is not nearly good enough to extend early education to all who need it. Nor is it good enough to assure that quality pre-K can be sustained even for those Arkansas children fortunate enough to have access now.
Commentary on 09/18/2016