Bryant taps panel to study successful pre-K model

Mississippi is the only state in the South and among only a handful nationwide without a state-funded prekindergarten program, according the state Department of Education. But even Bryant acknowledged it could be a long time before any state dollars are available for a full-fledged initiative.

The panel's members include Mississippi Economic Council President Blake Wilson; Claiborne Barksdale, director of the Barksdale Reading Institute; Sen. David Blount, D-Jackson; and Laurie Smith, director of Mississippi Building Blocks, the program that's being studied.

House Education Committee Chairman Cecil Brown, D-Jackson, said the House passed a bill last session that would have set up a joint legislative task force to study the issue, but the measure died in the Senate. Brown said Bryant has asked him to serve on the new panel.

"I'm supporting the idea of what he's saying. The only way we're going to implement early childhood education is over a long period of time," Brown said. "We've been talking about it 25 years or more, and it's time to get it done."

The state's business community raised about $10 million for Mississippi Building Blocks, which is completing its first year in operation. The program, which also receives $500,000 in federal funding annually, will continue for another three years, supplying educational and business resources to childcare centers statewide.

Smith said it's important that childcare centers have a strong educational component because a child's brain undergoes the most development during the first five years of life.

Smith said 150 classrooms were tested before the program was implemented in them, and all scored low on the quality of services provided. She said those classrooms have since received 20 days of instruction on reading, music and activities.

"These are your church programs, early Head Starts, big expensive ones and mom-and-pops," she said.

The problem is that the state doesn't offer any assistance for early education at these centers "that feed into the public school districts," Smith said.

Her program offers scholarships to center teachers to help them earn child development associate certification and purchase materials such as cribs and books. The program also offers business advice.

"We've found that these directors didn't have budgets and didn't know how to do payroll taxes," Smith said.

Bryant said his special Commission on Early Childhood Development doesn't have a timetable for providing a report, but he's hopeful panel members will give some feedback before the start of the 2011 Legislature.

Bryant said "we don't have the current funds" to create a statewide program similar to Mississippi Building Blocks, but private sector money could be a consideration.

He said the commission will explore whether the state should be putting policies in place on how such a program could be measured for achievement and accountability if state money is ever used.