US: Obama Proposes Prekindergarten for Low-Moderate-income with New Cigarette Tax

Source from:  Oregon Live  04/12/2013

In his budget proposal unveiled today, President Obama proposed expanding free, high-quality prekindergarten to all 4-year-olds from low- and moderate-income families. He said it would cost the federal government $75 billion over the coming decade.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan fleshed out details for education reporters this afternoon.

•The entire $75 billion would be paid for with a proposed 94-cents-a-pack increase in cigarette taxes, which he noted would not be easy to pass. He said the tax would reduce the number of young smokers as well as vastly expand early childhood education, so he called it "a fight worth having."

•States would have to pay part of the costs of prekindergarten, to give states "skin in the game," Duncan said. For the first two years, the feds would pay 90 percent of the cost and states would pay 10 percent. The state share would rise slowly to half the cost after eight years, then rise rapidly to 75 percent by year 10, federal officials said.

•Not every state would be expected to offer universal prekindergarten right away. States will have to create a system that convinces the feds the program will be high-quality before they get the federal money.

According to this estimate by the Center for American Progress, only 28 percent of low-income 4-year-olds in Oregon attend any kind of prekindergarten.

Officials in Duncan's office said the prekindergarten is intended for children from families who earn up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $47,000 for a family of four. That includes children whose family incomes are too high to qualify for reduced-price school meals, which are intended for students living at up to 185 percent of the poverty level. Enditem