Southern states go to the head of the class

ATLANTA — Rarely do experts extol the virtues of public education in the South.

So it was notable when a report released Thursday said the Southeast led the nation in state-funded early childhood education.

The Southern Education Foundation, a charity based in Atlanta, said the Southeast provided public prekindergarten to the largest percentage of 3- and 4-year-olds in the country: 19%, compared with 12% in the Northeast, 9% in the Midwest and 5.6% in the West.

"That is a dramatic difference," said Steve Suitts, who wrote the report.

He said the South's advances in prekindergarten education could be measured in enrollment and quality: Two-thirds of the states with the highest standards of prekindergarten are in the South.

Suitts said he hoped the report would encourage Southern states to introduce universal prekindergarten education.

Suitts acknowledged that early childhood education alone could not "transform the long-standing patterns of inadequate education and depressed personal income that have plagued and burdened the South." But he said it could be a way for the South to "finally break this long pattern."

The response from education experts was muted.

Some said it was imperative that early childhood education be developed in conjunction with other grade levels. Others said there was little evidence that prekindergarten benefited middle-class children.

"It is clearly ironic that the most conservative region in the country now has the clearest focus on serving poor children," said Bruce Fuller, a professor of education and public policy at UC Berkeley. "That's wonderful progress. But I think it's a huge leap of faith to then argue that the benefits available to poor kids should be given to all children."

The Southern Education Foundation report said independent studies showed that children who enrolled in quality prekindergarten programs were more likely than their counterparts to get higher grades, graduate from high school and earn more money as adults.

But Fuller said such studies had focused primarily on African American, Latino and low-income children.

Instead of focusing on universal prekindergarten, one expert said, Southern states should work toward a seamless education that connected prekindergarten with grade school, high school and college.