Toledo’s children too often begin life with huge disadvantages.
The city’s poverty rate is 40 percent. About a quarter of children here are chronically hungry. The city’s school district has more homeless students than any other in the state. And roughly four out of every five children are already behind academically when they start kindergarten.
Think about that. Before they even start school, they’re behind. Often, they never catch up.
Research — and a growing number of programs in other cities around the country — show over and over that one program can turn this around. Universal, free pre-kindergarten can close the gap.
Communities with universal pre-K see higher graduation rates, fewer discipline problems, fewer children repeating grades, and better job readiness.
For every dollar invested in universal pre-K, communities see a return of at least $7 in economic benefit. It is as close to a silver bullet for ending the cycle of poverty that a city can find.
One big obstacle stands in the way of these miraculous results: Universal pre-K is expensive. And working up the political will to invest up front in it is difficult.
Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz included universal pre-K in his campaign as his “moonshot,” idea. This week he brought together educators and other community leaders to enlist them in the campaign to make it happen.
“I don’t want us to be a city that kind of limps along,” the mayor said. “I want us to thrive. To do that, we’ve got to dream big.”
Dayton leaders dreamed big a couple of years ago. Their Preschool Promise is Mr. Kapszukiewicz’s model.
Dayton officials, led by Mayor Nan Whaley, persuaded voters in 2016 to approve a 0.25 percent income tax hike to provide $4.3 million a year for pre-K programs. Families can get tuition assistance to send 4-year-olds to any qualified preschool program in the city.
“It’s not about getting kids to go to preschool,” Director Robyn Lightcap said. “It’s about quality. And our definition of high quality is all of our children ready for kindergarten.”
Toledo has no problem embracing big ideas. This city loves them. But what it mostly loves about such ideas is to study them to death.
“We have committees, that have subcommittees, that issue reports, that lead to reviews, that prompt really great group discussions,” the mayor said.
That is a pitfall Mr. Kapszukiewicz is determined to avoid.
“We are doing this,” he said. “We are going to do it.”
The funding pitch is coming, probably early next year. Mr. Kapszukiewicz said philanthropic funding is on the table. It’s doubtful that will be enough to pay the entire tab. It is inevitable that public funding — possibly with a levy like Dayton’s — will be necessary to make this work.
This will be the first big test of Mr. Kapszukiewicz’s leadership.
Universal pre-K will be a test for everyone else in Toledo too — the business leaders, the nonprofits, the neighborhood associations, the educators, the religious institutions.
Do we want Toledo to be a place in 25 years that still is shrinking, still struggling to maintain the streets, still gamely battling to improve the schools?
Or does Toledo see a better future built on a foundation of a generation that defies the odds and begins school with an advantage, rather than the disadvantage that their parents and grandparents so often had?
First Published November 17, 2018, 10:45 a.m.
