Statewide Pre-K: Good for Families, Good for the Economy

A recent headline from South Dakota Searchlight shared a sad statistic: South Dakota is one of just five states in the U.S. that doesn't have state-funded preschool.

We join the inauspicious list alongside Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and New Hampshire. And while I mean no disrespect to Idaho and Montana — they're two of my favorite states — I don't think South Dakota should aspire to their education outcomes. Idaho ranks 47th in the country for its public school system and spends less per student than any other state in the nation.

And not only are we not offering state-funded preschool, our lawmakers have even declined to study whether we should. More on that in a moment.

This Isn't Just About Kids . . .

I think it’s worth talking about how the benefits of state-funded preschool go well beyond the classroom.

Research from the National Bureau of Economic Research found that enrolling a child in a universal pre-K program raised parent earnings by more than 21% — about $5,400 a year — during the pre-K years, and those gains held for at least six years afterward. That's real money for South Dakota families.

A study of New York City's universal pre-K expansion found it was associated with a nearly 4-percentage-point increase in maternal employment and a nearly 8-percentage-point reduction in material hardship for participating families. Washington, D.C. enacted universal preschool in 2009 and saw a 12-point jump in maternal labor force participation by 2016. It now has the highest maternal workforce participation rate in the nation.

When parents can't access affordable, reliable childcare, they don't work — or they work less, or they take jobs that fit around their childcare patchwork instead of jobs that match their skills and ambitions. That's a loss for those families — as well as for South Dakota’s economy.

And Yes, It's Also About the Kids

The research on children's outcomes is clear where it matters most: kids who attend quality preschool programs show up to kindergarten more ready to learn. They're less likely to be held back a grade, less likely to need special education services, and more likely to go to college.

An MIT study tracking over 4,000 students through a Boston preschool lottery found that kids who attended preschool were significantly more likely to go to college — and had fewer suspensions, less absenteeism, and fewer run-ins with the legal system along the way.

High-quality preschool programs can return up to $17 for every dollar invested, according to the National Institute for Early Education Research, when you factor in lifetime outcomes — higher earnings, lower special education costs, reduced involvement in the criminal justice system, less reliance on public assistance. Keeping a student out of grade retention alone saves an average of $13,000 a year. At a time when school districts have to stretch every dollar, investing early is fiscally responsible. Not investing is just deferring the cost.

So What Has South Dakota Done About It?

Well, we have a strategy — if you can call metaphorically sticking your fingers in your ears and saying “la la la, I can’t hear you,” a strategy.

In 2019, Sioux Falls Rep. Erin Healy introduced a bill that proposed a 12-person, governor-appointed council that would simply collect data — identifying gaps in access to early childhood education, finding populations being left behind, and looking for potential funding sources.

That's it. Study the problem. See what's there.

I don’t know about you, but I’m generally in favor of data.

The bill was supported by the South Dakota Head Start Association, the United School Associations of South Dakota, and school administrators across the state. Rep. Healy noted that without this council, South Dakota was likely leaving federal grant dollars on the table.

The committee killed it 9-2, along party lines.

House Speaker Steve Haugaard explained his vote by saying he'd heard the research — the reduced incarceration rates, the improved graduation rates, the return on investment. He knew the data. He just didn't care, because in his view, state-funded preschool was "a transformational approach to instilling more of a socialist agenda into the system."

He also clarified what he believes the purpose of public education is: to create a moral society whose people understand written language well enough to vote intelligently. Not, he specified, to build a capable workforce.

So here we are. One of five states. Ranked at the bottom for early education. Leaving federal money uncollected. And the last time someone asked our Legislature to simply look at the problem, they called it socialism and went home.

What I Believe

I believe that where a child is born in South Dakota shouldn't determine whether they get a strong start. I believe that parents who want to work should be able to work. I believe that "socialist agenda" is not a serious policy argument — it's a way of avoiding one.

Forty-five states have figured this out. South Dakota can too.