The Early Education Crisis, Local Covid-Relief Spending Breakdowns

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Dear Colleagues,

No part of the nation’s education infrastructure has been more disrupted by the pandemic over the past two years than early learning—where students acquire the foundational academic, social and emotional skills that are critical to success in school and beyond. Nationwide, preschool participation plunged, and nearly half of kindergartners scored well below literacy benchmarks during the 2020-21 school year.

But the nation’s capacity to respond to the crisis—and the potential of the pending federal Build Back Better legislation to greatly expand and improve child care and pre-kindergarten—is threatened by fragmented governance, a systematic lack of reliable information about the nation’s youngest learners, and weak alignment between pre-schooling and elementary education.

A new FutureEd report explores the depth and breadth of these problems, examines their causes and consequences, and points to solutions, including work underway in Virginia and other states to build stronger governance, performance, and information systems in early education.

Covid Relief Spending

In another effort to help education policymakers and practitioners respond effectively to the disruptions of the pandemic, FutureEd has launched a new project to analyze how local education agencies are planning to use an unprecedented infusion of federal Covid-relief funding under the American Rescue Plan.

Our first analysis identifies national and regional trends in the spending plans of nearly 2,100 school districts and charter school organizations serving some 40 percent of the nation’s public-school students.

We also created a series of resources pages for local educators planning to use Covid-relief aid to develop school staff, promote academic recovery, improve school climate and student health, invest in technology, and upgrade school facilities.

In other news, we are thrilled to welcome Tequilla Brownie, the chief executive officer of TNTP, to FutureEd’s network as a senior fellow. A Yale graduate and a daughter of the Mississippi Delta, Tequilla will contribute commentary and inform our work on the teaching profession.

We continue to chronicle leadership changes throughout the education sector in The Churn and we post upcoming in-person and virtual events in The Horizon. Send your events and leadership news to [email protected], and we’ll be happy to post them.

Thanks and best wishes for the new year,

Tom

Thomas Toch
Director, FutureEd
McCourt School of Public Policy
Georgetown University
[email protected]
@thomas_toch

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