The recession may be over because the media is spending a lot of time lately analyzing its impact on the country, including two stories in the last several days about how it has affected families and early education.

At the Huffington Post, one story talks about the need to invest in early learning now, even though state and federal budgets are tight, because the economic downturn has already impacted school readiness and will drag down the national economy.

A declining U.S. economy leads directly to poorer school performance and lower school readiness. The FCD (The Foundation for Child Development) report points to recent history as a guide, pinpointing the two recessions of 1981-82 and 1990-91 as the key culprits for drops in reading and math scores during subsequent time periods, the mid-1980's and mid-1990's. – “The Children of the Great Recession.”  Huffington Post. 8/6/10.

On Sunday, The New York Times Magazine ran a column, “Home Economics: What the Great Recession has really done to family life,” which takes a critical view of analysis that suggests the economic downturn has had a major positive influence on the U.S. family.

The author, Judith Warner, highlights findings of shorter maternity leaves, large percentages of unemployed people saying the recession has strained family life, major losses of wealth among middle-class families and reports of parents working longer hours.

That the Great Recession could then bring hope for a major recalibration — a resetting of all the clocks — is not surprising. Unfortunately, though, it’s not happening in any meaningful way. The poor are getting poorer, and the rich, despite stock-market setbacks, are still comparatively rich. The most devastating losses in household wealth over the past two years have been suffered by the middle class. And families are fraying at the seams.  – “What the Great Recession has really done to family life.”

You can also check out The New York Times Motherlode blog’s take, and join its conversation about the intersection of families and the recession.

The Great Recession will wipe out nearly all of the gains in children’s economic well-being made over the last 35 years, and a decline in pre-kindergarten enrollment could help drag down this generation in the coming years, a new report says.

Overall, the 2010 Child and Youth Well-Being Index laid out a bleak present and immediate future for today’s children because of the historic economic downtown. For example, the poverty rate among children will hit its highest rate in 20 years, nearly 22 percent, this year, and the obesity rate is expected to keep rising, the Foundation for Child Development stated in its annual report.

The index includes 28 well-being indicators in seven groups:  economic wellbeing,
safe/risky behavior, social relationships, emotional/spiritual well-being, community engagement, educational attainment, and health.

“… By 2010, the recession will wipe out virtually all progress made for children in the Family Economic Well-being Domain since 1975,” New Report: Impact of Recession on Children to Reach New Lows in 2010, 6/8/10.

The report also noted a drop in pre-k attendance as a major worry, since it could affect children’s performance for years, lowering math and reading scores in third and fourth grade, and potentially leading to higher high school dropout rates 

The broader spike in children living in poverty also will create problems in the future, according to Foundation for Child Development president Ruby Takanishi.

“Research shows that children who slip into poverty, even for a short time, suffer long-term setbacks even when their families regain their economic footing,” Takanishi said in a statement released yesterday. “This is especially true for children during their first decade of life. This means that, even if the recession subsides soon, the effects on these children will not. Unfortunately, we fear the worst is yet to come.”

Further Reading:

• 2010 Child and Youth Well-Being Index (CWI), Full report.
• Press release
• More than 1 in 5 kids live in poverty, USA Today, 6/8/10.
• Graphics from the report.

The recession is hitting parents hard, with one in five moms and dads saying they are not able to afford child care because of the economic downturn, a survey released this week found.

Overall, one quarter of parents said the poor economy created child care hardships, according to the survey of parents with kids ranging in age from newborn to three-years-old.

While the recession’s most common impact among these parents was being unable to afford child care, it was followed by a spouse who lost a job and took on more child care duties, cutting child care hours and making other child care arrangements, Zero to Three, which sponsored the report, said. Only five percent mentioned rising child care prices.

Together, the responses offered a picture of families who could use help as they try to work and cover their child care costs. Half of surveyed parents relied on caregivers, with nearly one quarter relying on a grandparent, 14 percent using a child care center and only four percent with in-home care.

In separate but interesting findings, the survey showed many parents are not in tune with some of their children’s key developmental milestones. For example, 23 percent of parents expected their children to be able to control their emotions by age three, and 43 percent thought they could by age three.

Research, however, shows kids learn to control their emotions between age three and five, Zero to Three said.

The survey was based on telephone and Internet surveys conducted in June 2009 with 1,615 parents.

The recession continues to erode support for children’s programs around the country. At least 42 states cut programs last year that help children, and it may not get much better this year, a new report says.

The budget review found states cut everything from child care subsidies and pre-kindergarten spending to foster care and welfare payments. One state cut money for children’s hearing aids, another trimmed support for youth dental care and Washington State killed a vaccine program, according to the report by the National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies, Voices for America’s Children and Every Child Matters Education Fund. (The analysis has a great state-by-state breakdown.)

It won’t get much easier this year because states face as much as $260 billion in budget deficits, NACCRRA reports.

Congress will need to make investments in children’s programs a priority in both the
jobs bill and the 2011 federal budget if children’s programs are not to be cut further. – “State Budget Cuts: America’s Kids Pay the Price.” 1/8/09.

Plus, aid from last year’s federal economic stimulus package is running out.

The federal stimulus passed earlier this year, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), did a lot to protect and invest in children. It included more than $50 billion in state relief for education and Medicaid and tens of billions of dollars in nutrition, health, income stabilization, and tax relief for working families. Yet substantial cuts still were necessary in 2009, and the Medicaid assistance that states received is scheduled to end on December 31, 2010.

The assistance states received for education and other services also will be largely exhausted by then.

To deal with these shortfalls, the Virginia-based interest group offered Congress a list of suggestions that is striking in its variety.

For example, lawmakers should consider spending more on mentoring programs and Job Corps, as well as Head Start and child care.

The report arrives at a good time, with early learning legislation moving through Congress – the Early Learning Challenge Fund plan and provisions in the health care reform bill for home visiting. The national child care group also points out the Obama administration is finishing up its fiscal 2011 budget plan.

President Barack Obama has emerged as the most powerful supporter of early learning in years at a time when a recession stands as the biggest threat to its progress, and that tension is posing difficult questions about future spending on childcare and pre-kindergarten.

The Great Recession is reshaping the early learning landscape, forcing states to cut or freeze spending on child care, leading parents to pull their kids out of care and straining their ability to pay for quality. Together, these forces are damaging an economic model for child care that was already breaking down.

Yet, Pre-K Now offers powerful evidence about the need for quality early learning and how a recession effects children’s development in its newsletter “Pre-K Picks.” As importantly, it focuses on how quality preschool and pre-k are key elements of the foundation of our future economic growth. (You have to join Pre-K Now’s website to get the e-newsletter.)

For example, last month, the President’s Council on Economic Advisers said we need to pay attention to quality preschools as we prepare a more competitive workforce.

The most important “post-high school” education and training reform is a strong early childhood and elementary and secondary education system. – Preparing the Workers of Today for the Jobs of Tomorrow, July 2009. A growing body of rigorous evidence suggests children who attend high quality pre-school are more likely to complete more years of education, attend four-year colleges, go on to hold skilled jobs, and earn higher wages.

Obviously, the guy the council wrote this for agrees. But even with such a powerful ally I’m already hearing advocates worry about next year’s federal funding battles. Unfortunately, budget deficits and the national debt matter because both can sway bond markets, effect borrowing and become fodder for fiscal conservatives in Congress. How long can Obama push through tens of billions of new dollars for child care and pre-k before those arguments stall his efforts, especially if the economy doesn’t enjoy a strong and sustained rally?

This is the trillion dollar question: What will the economic recovery look like? We are only beginning to get a sense, and it could be the recovery no one notices thanks to chronic high unemployment. If state tax revenues don’t pick up, many programs will suffer, including early learning initiatives.

I have more questions than research today. Check out Pre-K Now’s excellent collection of resources, research and links at “How the economy and young children's development impact each other” and help me get some answers. 

Monday opened on a depressing note, with a new report saying the Great Recession will wipe out advances in “children’s economic well-being” made over the last 33 years and reduce the number of kids in pre-kindergarten.

The recession will push the percentage of children living in poverty to 21 percent next year, up from 17 percent in 2006, cut families’ median annual income to $55,700 and move the obesity rate among children even higher, the Foundation for Child Development reports today.

The recession “will affect their health and educational attainment,” Kenneth Land, project coordinator and director of Duke University’s Center for Population Health and Aging, said in a statement. “The fact that we may actually reverse hard-won gains made over the last 35 years is alarming.”

For early learning advocates one of the biggest concerns is the report’s suggestion that pre-k enrollment may fall, as families struggle with lower incomes, job losses and budget cuts.

“The result will be that the children who are not involved in high quality
PreK programs today will become below-basic performers on Fourth, Eighth, and Twelfth Grade tests in the future,” the foundation said in a summary.  “Now, in the maelstrom of this current recession, is the time to protect children’s educational futures.”

The Child Well-Being Index report also said the historic economic contraction will hit children of color hardest.

“When the economy is doing well, their well-being gains are more dramatic. When the economy slumps, they are harder hit than their white counterparts because more children of color live in poverty to begin with,” Ruby Takanishi, president of the research and advocacy foundation, said in a press release, referring to Latino and African American children.

You can read the Reuters story here and the full report here.

• Propositions 1D, 1E ask voters to think again: Citizens passed taxes to fund early childhood and mental health programs, specifically. Now lawmakers want the money for California's general fund instead.

  State lawmakers fighting to escape a riptide of budgetary red ink have two propositions on the May 19 special election ballot that would yank more than $2 billion from a pair of popular programs that help some of the state's most vulnerable: young children and the mentally ill.

  Both programs were approved by voters over the last decade. Now lawmakers want to take that money away to help balance the books. – Los Angeles Times, 4/20/09.

Plus: Recession Impacts Preschool in California: Q&A

The budget crisis is creating the possibility of real cuts to programs. Right now on the table there is a $55 million cut to our child development programs, which are our state-contracted centers. These are the programs that are state-funded programs for low-income families that need contracts from the state to function. This $55 million cut translates into 10,000 to 14,000 fewer children receiving preschool or childcare services; 2,000 to 3,000 jobs lost; and 10,000 to 15,000 parents unable to go to work due to loss of child care. – New America Media, 4/24/09.

• Among Child Care Options in Miami, Children Learn More in School-Based Pre-K

  Children who attended pre-K programs run by the Miami-Dade County Public Schools are doing better in elementary school than their peers who attended community-based child-care settings paid for with public subsidies, according to new research from the Miami School Readiness Project.

• Mentors in Motherhood: New program pairs nurses with young moms

  It's all part of a new, free Mecklenburg County program that matches visiting nurses with first-time, low-income mothers.
  

  While home visits sound expensive, research has shown that the Nurse-Family Partnership, created 30 years ago in New York, produces stronger, healthier parents and children and saves money by reducing child abuse, substance abuse and crime. Charlotte Observer, 4/20/09.
  

Plain interesting parenting news (old habits die hard):

• Mr. Moms (by Way of Fortune 500)
  

  They are among the 5.1 million people across the country who have lost jobs in a recession that has put more men than women out of work, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
  

  In Pelham Manor, unemployed fathers can now be seen at the elementary school and the grocery stores, or walking with children along the quiet streets, taking their places, by necessity, in the largely women’s world of childcare, housework and school life.
  

  Research by social scientists dating back to the recession of 1981 shows that men who spend time with their children while unemployed tend to make family time a greater priority when they do go back to work. – New York Times, 4/22/09.

In case you missed it:

• Two parents, two kids, two jobs ... and only 24 hours in a day, Oregonian, 4/18/09.
• Achievement Gap Shows up Early, Costs Economy More than $1 Trillion, New Study.
  

A new report on the nation’s achievement gap landed this week with an eye-popping claim that the educational divide costs the U.S. economy more than $1 trillion and new concerns about how early students fall behind.

The persistence of these educational achievement gaps imposes on the United States the economic equivalent of a permanent national recession. – “The Economic Impact of the Achievement Gap in America’s Schools.” If the United States had in recent years closed the gap between its educational achievement levels and those of better-performing nations such as Finland and Korea, GDP in 2008 could have been $1.3 trillion to $2.3 trillion higher.

Perhaps the McKinsey & Co. report’s most interesting findings for early learning professionals were on how prominent the achievement gap is in third and fourth grades.

Tests as early as fourth grade are powerful predictors of future achievement and life outcomes. For example, 87 percent of fourth grade students scoring in the bottom quartile on New York City math achievement tests remained in the bottom half in eighth grade. Students who scored in the top quartile in math in eighth grade had a 40 percent higher median income 12 years later than students who scored in the bottom quartile…

But, researchers offered hope, saying students who could improve between third grade and eighth grade, “are much more likely to graduate with Honors…”

This means that while some students may have different starting points than others, reaching low-achieving students in the early years of their education can have a tremendous impact on their life outcomes.

This analysis will resonate with many working in early learning, but it raises two critical questions: When does the achievement gap start – many in the early learning community might argue in the womb – and how can we define it in similar terms for students in pre-kindergarten through second grade? Many in the early learning community already regularly point to research that says that children who start school behind often stay behind or have a very hard time catching up.

“Early learning was a critical piece in all of our achievement gap reports,” said Erin Jones, director of our state’s Center for the Improvement of Student Learning. “Students who are not reading by third grade are much more likely to drop out and then much more likely to become involved in the prison system. One of our panelists, Dr. Ron Ferguson of Harvard University, said that children of all races generally score about the ‘same level’ when they’re assessed as one-year olds. But by the time they reach school age – only four years later – we can see visible gaps in their learning. That evidence alone demonstrates the crucial need for high-quality learning opportunities for all children.

Though the report offers a tough judgment of the nation’s education system, it also gives teachers, lawmakers and advocates big payoffs for closing the education gap between rich and poor, including:

If the gap between low-income students and the rest had been similarly narrowed, GDP in 2008 would have been $400 billion to $670 billion higher, or 3 to 5 percent of GDP.

The drive to enroll more kids in quality preschools gained momentum last year, as classrooms taught more students and secured more funding, but the nation’s deepening recession threatens to wash away gains, according to a national report released today.

Last year, publicly-backed pre-kindergarten programs received nearly $1 billion more than the year before, collecting a total of $5.2 billion to teach three-and-four-year olds, the National Institute for Early Education Research reported in its “State of Preschool 2008.” (Read the full report and the press release.)

Supporters, though, have no time to celebrate. During this economic downturn early learning classrooms are particularly vulnerable because these programs rely on state discretionary funds, which are easier to cut than mandatory spending when state lawmakers are scrambling to balance their budgets, according to the report.

Policymakers already are debating cutting enrollment, standards and growth, NIEER’s head, Steve Barnett, added, despite evidence that quality preschools save states money by lowering crime rates, increasing college attendance and with other gains after preschoolers graduate high school.

“Long-term consequences of cutting these things now can be much bigger than any small gain they can get,” Barnett said.

Nina Auerbach, president and CEO of Thrive by Five Washington, agreed.

“Early learning won’t be spared its share of cuts this session. But, we are reminding legislators to think about the long-term impact on today’s babies and toddlers. Research repeatedly shows that high-quality early learning increases the chance that children will be literate, employed and college-bound and decreases school drop-out rates, dependency on public assistance and trouble with the law.”

The reversal of fortunes is obvious in state support. While 38 states fund preschools, the report said nine of those states likely will cut that spending this year, and that list doesn’t include Washington state where lawmakers are debating early learning cuts.

These cutbacks come at a bad time, as more families fall into poverty after losing their jobs, health care benefits and savings in this recession.

Overall, Washington state scored well on the institute’s annual scorecard, meeting nine of 10 benchmarks and spending an average of $7,046 on each pre-k student, sixth among all states. But, Washington faltered in the critical area of access. Only six percent of the state’s four-year-old children attended a state-backed preschool, a score that placed 32nd.

It wasn’t all good news for state-backed preschools. For example, 12 states do not offer any regular program, according to the report. (Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming.)

Even though teachers and advocates are worried about fresh budget cuts, there is hope because the federal government is sending billions of dollars to states for preschools, pre-kindergartens and other early learning classrooms. But, advocates argue it won’t help as much as some think, because many of those programs have been starved of federal money for years.

 “The big picture here is that for the last eight years, the only game around for early childhood was in the states, because under Bush there was nothing going on at the federal level,” said Cornelia Grumman, executive director of the First Five Years Fund, an advocacy group based in Chicago. “All of a sudden that’s changed. Now the only game is federal, because if you’re a state-funded program relying on your state legislature, well, it’s not a rosy picture.” – The New York Times, Recession Stalls State-Financed Pre-Kindergarten, but Federal Money May Help.