Perdue to move $9M to fund 2,000 more in N.C. pre-K

By Gary D. Robertson

RALEIGH, N.C. 

Gov. Beverly Perdue said Wednesday she's shifting unused child-care subsidy money to enroll another 2,000 at-risk 4-year-olds in a state program that helps them catch up to their peers before entering kindergarten.

Perdue announced her administration has identified $9.3 million from a subsidy fund that will be used on a one-time basis to help enroll more children in the North Carolina Pre-Kindergarten program.

The decision, unveiled just before Perdue visited a Raleigh preschool, is the latest effort by Perdue to restore funds eliminated in the Republican-penned budget that trimmed thousands of slots in what was previously called More at Four. A court ruling essentially in favor of Perdue also has equipped her to challenge the GOP.

The federal money would pay to enroll 2,000 children in private and public preschools statewide beginning in March through August, when they enroll in kindergarten.

"We know that North Carolina Pre-K makes a long-term difference in a child's life," Perdue said at the Happy Face Preschool, where she talked with children and teachers. "We can do this for our children. We can assure in some small way that they have an opportunity to be somebody in North Carolina."

A Wake County Superior Court judge overseeing North Carolina's long-running school funding lawsuit ruled last summer that no eligible child can be turned away from the free preschool education. The budget designed by the Republican-led Legislature required most families who qualified for the program to make a co-payment to participate.

State attorneys are appealing the ruling, and GOP lawmakers have resisted putting more money into the program for which an estimated 67,000 children are eligible. The service is now available to 24,700 children. They are concerned that the judge's ruling would saddle North Carolina with a large, expensive entitlement program.

Perdue rolled out a plan in October in which she asked the Legislature to allocate $30 million to serve another 6,300 preschoolers this year to meet Judge Howard Manning's ruling, but legislators didn't act and suggested Perdue explain how she intended to pay as much as $300 million to ultimately serve all eligible children within the next four years.

The governor said she didn't have any constitutional or legal concerns about spending the child-care subsidy dollars announced today without the approval of the General Assembly, which appropriates state funds.

"We feel very comfortable," Perdue said.

The subsidy funds haven't been allocated as quickly as anticipated to all 100 counties, leaving some funds behind, said Al Delia, acting secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. The administration decided it was a better use of the money to help 4-year-olds for a five-month period rather than distribute child-care subsidies to parents knowing that the money would run out for some next year, Delia said.

House Speaker Thom Tillis' office was reviewing the ruling, and a House member leading a committee looking at early childhood education didn't immediately return a message at his office seeking comment.

The committee, among other things, is examining whether to change eligibility requirements for North Carolina Pre-K to mimic eligibility for other government preschool efforts.

A draft of the committee's report released this week recommended that eligibility for many children be limited to children in families at or below the federal poverty level. Current eligibility is capped at incomes at or below 75 percent of the state median income.

Delia said such a change, if approved by the full Legislature, could eliminate one-third of the children who are currently in the eligibility pool.

The proposed definition change is a concern, Delia said in an interview: "It certainly raises a caution flag."

For now, teachers at the Happy Face Preschool were thrilled by the news about the potential for additional children. The preschool now has 51 students, of which 70 percent are enrolled thanks to North Carolina Pre-K. It has an empty classroom that can take another 18 children.

Many Happy Face students arrived in the fall unable to perform basic skills such as handling scissors of pencils, teacher Sabrena Robinson said.

Today, kids "can recognize their name, the sounds of letters," Robinson told Perdue after the governor met with her students and performed an exercise dance with them. "They're more than ready right now for kindergarten."